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PROJECT ONE - Orders, Decorations
and Medals relating to Sri Lanka (Ceylon)
from 1795 to the present.
A sample from the section on Long Service Decorations
THE ROYAL NAVAL VOLUNTEER RESERVE DECORATION 1908 (VRD)
This decoration was instituted in 1908 and was awarded to officers of the
RNVR for 20 years service, which need not be continuous, but commissioned
service under the age of 17 was not counted. Commissioned service in the RNR,
Volunteer and Territorial Forces was allowed to count whilst service in the
ranks of the RNVR and other auxiliary services counted half and war service
counted double.
Recipients of this decoration were permitted to use the post nominal letters
VRD.
If the recipient had served in the ranks and had received the RNVR Long
Service Medal, he was allowed to possess and wear both awards. On 1 Nov 1958
the RNVR merged with the RNR and since May 1966 this decoration was
superseded by that of the RNR.
Description- An oval skeletal badge.
Obverse- The Royal Cypher surrounded by a loop of cable tied at the bottom
and surmounted by a crown.
Reverse- EVII issues are hallmarked, later issues often have the year of
award engraved.
Metal- Silver and Silver-gilt
Suspension- Ring suspender.
Ribbon- Originally plain dark green, but changed in 1919 to navy blue with a
central green stripe flanked by two narrow red stripes.
Naming- Issued unnamed, but maybe found privately engraved on reverse.
Examples of this award in Ceylon.
Commander Adalbert Vance Frughtneit OBE VRD, Royal Ceylon Navy.
Commanding Officer of the Ceylon Volunteer Naval Force from 1.2.1954 to
31.8.1957. Chairman of the CRNVR Association, April - July 1956. He was one
of the 18 sailors, the pioneers, who founded the CRNVR.
Willoughby Greaves Beauchamp CBE VRD, Capt. CRNVR Retd.
Born 5.4.1890. The son of Willoughby James Beauchamp and Elizabeth Maria.
Educated at Cheltenham College. Served as Capt. in the Indian Army during
WW1 (BWM and Vict). Tea and Rubber Merchant in Ceylon. Commissioned in the
Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps. Founder of the CRNVR. Married 8 April 1912,
Kathleen Alice (2nd Daughter of the late Dr. W.B.Benison, of King's Heath,
Worcestershire). They had three daughters. He was the founder and the first
Commanding Officer of the CRNVR, in which he served during WW2. He was
awarded the VRD, and later the CBE (Mil) on 1.1.1946.
Address (in 1959): Three Beaches, Bantry, County Cork. |
