The colours were set by regulation, so the ribbon names the award
Every British campaign medal was issued on a ribbon whose colours were written into the warrant or regulations that created the award. Match the colours and the order of the stripes and you have the medal, the campaign and the years, without taking anything out of its frame.
Two limits apply before you start. Ribbons fray and get replaced, so the ribbon on a medal today says nothing about where that medal has been, and one ribbon was issued for two different awards, so those two cannot be separated by colour at all.
Sort by war first. The First World War stars and the Victory Medal are watered silk in rainbow arrangements, while most of the Second World War ribbons have hard-edged stripes whose colours each stand for something.
First World War: five ribbons, and two of them identical
| Medal | Ribbon | Awarded for |
|---|---|---|
| 1914 Star | Watered silk in red, white and blue stripes | France and Flanders, 5 August to 22 November 1914 |
| 1914 to 15 Star | The same ribbon as the 1914 Star | Any theatre of war from 5 August 1914 to 31 December 1915, where the 1914 Star had not been earned |
| British War Medal | An orange watered centre, thin white and black stripes at each side, royal blue borders | A prescribed period of service at any stage of the war, extended to 1920 |
| Mercantile Marine War Medal | A narrow central white stripe with a wide green stripe to its left and a wide red stripe to its right, for the port and starboard steaming lights | Holders of the British War Medal who went to sea through a danger zone, or served six months at sea |
| Victory Medal | Watered silk in a double rainbow, indigo at the edges and red at the centre | Everyone who had earned either star, and most who earned the British War Medal |
Those descriptions come from the New Zealand Defence Force, which publishes one for each award of the period.
The duplicate is the trap. Both stars share one ribbon, so the star itself has to be read. A 1914 Star was earned in France and Flanders in the first fifteen weeks of the war and carries a dated clasp reading “5th Aug.- 22nd Nov. 1914” where the man had been under fire; a rosette on the ribbon stands for that clasp when ribbons alone are worn. Just over 400,000 were awarded across the British Empire against about 6.5 million silver British War Medals, so a star in a group is far more likely to be the 1914 to 15.
The rainbow separates the two medals. Both stars run one rainbow across the ribbon, and the Victory Medal runs two, meeting at a red centre with indigo at both edges. About 6 million Victory Medals were issued, which makes it the ribbon to learn first.
Second World War: twelve ribbons, and the colours George VI chose
Nine stars and three medals cover the Second World War. The Ministry of Defence states in its guidance on medals and eligibility that the colours of the star ribbons carry symbolic significance and are believed to have been designed personally by King George VI. The middle column below is the wording of the Army’s own regulations, Campaign Stars and Commemorative Medals instituted for the 1939-45 War; the right-hand column is the symbolism those regulations and that guidance give.
| Star or medal | Ribbon as the regulations describe it | What the colours stand for |
|---|---|---|
| 1939 to 1945 Star | Dark blue, red and light blue in three equal vertical stripes | Dark blue the Navy and Merchant Navy, red the Army, light blue the Air Force |
| Atlantic Star | Blue, white and sea green, shaded and watered | Service in the Atlantic |
| Air Crew Europe Star | Light blue with black edges and a narrow yellow stripe on either side | The sky, night flying and enemy searchlights |
| Africa Star | Pale buff with a central red stripe and two narrower stripes, one dark blue, one light blue | The desert and the three services |
| Pacific Star | Dark green with red edges and a central yellow stripe, plus a narrow dark blue stripe and a narrow light blue one | The forests and beaches of the Pacific, the red edges the Armies, the blues the Naval Forces and Merchant Navies and the Air Forces |
| Burma Star | Dark blue with a central red stripe and two orange stripes | The sun, and Commonwealth forces |
| Italy Star | Five equal stripes: red at either edge, green at the centre, white between | The Italian colours |
| France and Germany Star | Five equal stripes: blue at either edge, red at the centre, white between | The Union Flag, and France and the Netherlands |
| Defence Medal | Flame coloured at the centre, green at the edges, with two black stripes | Attacks on a green and pleasant land, and the black-out |
| War Medal 1939 to 1945 | A narrow central red stripe with a narrow white stripe either side, broad red stripes at the edges, blue between | The Union Flag |
| India Service Medal 1939 to 1945 | A narrow central light blue stripe with a narrow dark blue stripe on either side | The blues of the Orders of the Star of India and the Indian Empire |
The ninth star is the Arctic Star, instituted in 2012, sixty-seven years after the war it covers, and therefore absent from those regulations. The New Zealand Defence Force describes its ribbon as light blue for the Air Forces, dark blue for the Navy and red for the Merchant Navy, with a central white band edged in black for the Arctic.
Two pairs in that table account for most wrong attributions. The Italy Star and the France and Germany Star are both five vertical stripes of equal width with white between, and nothing else in the series uses that arrangement, so the edges decide it: red edges with a green centre is Italy, and blue edges with a red centre is France and Germany, for service there from 6 June 1944. The Defence Medal and the War Medal sit beside each other in a mounted group, where green at the edges is the Defence Medal and red at the edges is the War Medal.
Count the stars next. The regulations allowed no individual more than five of the eight original stars, and the Ministry of Defence states that the Arctic Star can be worn as a sixth. A frame holding seven stars holds somebody else’s medals too.
Gallantry: plain crimson, and crimson with a stripe
| Award | Ribbon |
|---|---|
| Victoria Cross | Plain crimson, and dark blue for Royal Navy awards before 1918 |
| George Cross | Plain dark blue, instituted 1940 |
| Distinguished Conduct Medal | Crimson with a dark blue central stripe |
| Military Medal | Dark blue edges with five equal central stripes of white, red, white, red, white |
The National Army Museum records that the Victoria Cross ribbon was dark blue for the Royal Navy and crimson for the Army until 1918, when, shortly before the Royal Air Force was formed, King George V approved crimson for all three services. A naval cross on dark blue therefore predates 1918.
The crimson ribbon with a dark blue stripe down the middle is the one that raises hopes in a saleroom, and it is the Distinguished Conduct Medal: instituted in 1854, the oldest British gallantry award, and a silver disc reading “FOR DISTINGUISHED CONDUCT IN THE FIELD” rather than a bronze cross. The price records carry a Distinguished Conduct Medal group of five to the Royal Field Artillery at £2,900 at hammer, an illustrative figure, and what a Victoria Cross is worth covers the other end of that scale.
South Africa: the pair that always travelled together
The Queen’s South Africa Medal has a broad orange central stripe flanked by two dark blue stripes with red edges, and went to everyone who served in South Africa between 11 October 1899 and 31 May 1902. Twenty-six clasps were awarded for it, and the clasps are where the price sits: the price records carry one with four clasps to the Royal Engineers at £300 at hammer, again illustrative.
The King’s South Africa Medal, instituted by Edward VII after Queen Victoria’s death for eighteen months of service, carries stripes of green, white and orange. It was never issued alone and always accompanied the Queen’s Medal, so a King’s Medal on its own means something has left the group.
Read the rim once the ribbon has named the medal
The ribbon gives you the campaign, and nothing else. Only the rim names the man, and the man is what the price follows, so turn each medal edge-on under a lamp before deciding anything. First World War medals were issued named, while Second World War stars and medals went to British forces unnamed, which is why the named card box of issue decides the value of a Second World War group and the ribbons do not.
Then check whether a ribbon in the frame has no medal under it. An empty ribbon, or a group mounted out of sequence, is the first sign that something has been sold or lost out of it, and the research guide works from the naming through the medal index cards and the rolls at the National Archives to the man himself.
