Established by the East India Company in May 1848, the Indian Long Service and Good Conduct Medal was a medal to recognize long and efficient service by Europeans in service of the East India Company's Army.

The award was established along the same lines as the Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal for other ranks in the British Army. European troops were recognized by the award of the medal for long and efficient service totalling at least 21 years.

It was discontinued in 1873 after which the standard Army Long Service Good Conduct (LSGC) medal was granted.

Description:

Materials: The majority of the British medals and clasps are made of solid silver, though some were issue in bronze versions, mainly to Indian non-combatants. The majority of the British campaign awards are circular, usually 36mm in diameter.

Ribbons: Medals are worn suspended from their own specific ribbons. These were first made of silk but cotton was increasingly used as the nineteenth century developed. Their own colours often have a symbolic significance: the equal stripes of the ‘1939 to 1945 Star,’ for example, are dark blue to represent the service of the Royal and Merchant Navies, red, to represent that of the Armies and light blue to represent that of Air Forces.

Ribbon width can vary slightly though it is generally 32mm wide.

Ribbon – Plain crimson (till 1917), or crimson with narrow white edges

Indian Long Service and Good Conduct Medal (For Europeans 1848) ribbon (till 1917)

Indian Long Service and Good Conduct Medal (For Europeans 1848) ribbon (post 1917)

Suspender - Ornate

Type – Long Service Medal

Eligibility – Europeans in the British Indian Army

Awarded for – Long and efficient service

Established – 1848

Designer – Benedetto Pistrucci

Description – Silver medal, 36mm diameter. The obverse of the medal depicts a military trophy of arms, with the arms of the East India Company in the centre. The reverse is blank in the centre to allow the recipient’s name and details to be engraved and is surrounded by a ring. Upon the ring is the inscription ‘FOR LONG SERVICE AND GOOD CONDUCT’. In 1859 some 100 medal were sent to India by mistake, these had the profile of Queen Victoria on the obverse and the reverse inscribed ‘FOR LONG SERVICE AND GOOD CONDUCT’ within an oak wreath with a crown at the top and a fouled anchor at the foot.

This guide will help you through all the parts and descriptions of military medals

Sources:

Bigbury Mint

< gov.uk/medals-campaigns-descriptions-and-eligibility>

Some of the material on this page was also partially derived from

<en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Indian_Long_Service_and_Good_Conduct_Medal >

Which are released under the terms of

Creativecommons.org/licenses/by-s/3.0/.