Original British Anglo-Zulu War Era Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal (Small letters Victorian Version) For Sergeant Stephen Bushell, 1st Dragoon Guards – Regimental Number 301 Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. The Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal was instituted by King William IV in 1830. The medal remained in use for 100 years, until it was replaced by the Medal for Long Service and Good Conduct (Military) in 1930. During that time the reverse of the medal remained virtually unchanged, while the design of the obverse was altered during the reigns of Queen Victoria, King Edward VII and King George V.

The medal was initially awarded to soldiers in the ranks of the Regular Force who had completed 21 years of service in the infantry or 24 years in the cavalry like Sergeant Bushell from being in the Dragoons. From 1870 the qualifying period was reduced and the medal was awarded to Regular Force non-commissioned officers and men who had completed eighteen years of irreproachable service, irrespective whether the service was in the infantry or the cavalry.

The medal was struck in silver and is a disk, 36 millimeters (1.42 inches) in diameter and 3 millimeters (0.12 inches) thick. Apart from the different obverse designs that came into use with each successive monarch, the suspension of the medal evolved over the years from a small or large ring to a plain curved bar suspender, and eventually an ornamented scroll pattern suspender that was initially a swiveling type like this example and finally a fixed non-swivelling type.

Reverse
The reverse of all versions of the medal is smooth with a raised rim and bears the inscription “FOR LONG SERVICE AND GOOD CONDUCT” in four straight lines in the center. The inscription is underlined by two spear blades, which evolved from three tied balls between the two blades on early versions of the medal to three separate balls between the blades on later versions.

Ribbon
The ribbon was plain crimson from the medal’s institution until 1916, initially 1 inch (25 millimetres) wide for the early small ring suspender medals and thereafter 1+1⁄4 inches (32 millimetres) wide for the subsequent medals with a large ring or bar suspenders. The same plain crimson ribbon was used with the Victoria Cross, but with a miniature button emblem of the Cross worn on the ribbon bar in undress.

From June 1916 a new ribbon was used, at times crimson or sometimes reddish violet, and edged with 3 millimetres wide white bands.

As with nearly all other British medal, this one is rim engraved with the following information:

301. SERGT S. BUSHELL, 1ST DRAGOON GDS

Deciphering and locating military service records in the Pre-WWII era is a rather difficult task. Fortunately we were able to find out that Sergeant Stephen Bushell enlisted some time in 1858, where shortly after it appears that he was assigned to a Dragoons regiment. He has a pension date from when he retired some time in 1878.

The overall condition is quite nice and comes more than ready for further research and display.