Bermuda Consolidated Legislation

 

BERMUDA STATUTORY INSTRUMENT

[GN 1965/452]

EFFICIENCY DECORATION (BERMUDA) REGULATIONS 1965

made by His Excellency the Governor under the authority of the Royal Warrant dated the 17th day of November, 1952 and approved by the Sec retary of State for the Colonies and brought into operation on 20 November 1965.

1 These Regulations may be cited as the Efficiency Decoration (Bermuda) Regulations, 1965.

2 In these Regulations, "Her Majesty's Authorised Auxiliary Mili tary Forces of the Commonwealth" means the Territorial Army, Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and the Royal Auxiliary Air Force in the United Kingdom and Her Majesty's similar forces including volunteer forces in other territories of the Commonwealth to which attach similar obligations for training in peace; it excludes the Army Reserve and suchlike forces. The word "Commonwealth" includes any territories under Her Majesty's protection.

3 The Efficiency Decoration and Clasps are awarded to an officer for long and meritorious service of proved capacity in Her Majesty's Au thorised Auxiliary Military Forces of the Commonwealth (or their Re serves) and are governed by the Royal Warrant dated 17th November, 1952.

4 (i) Commissioned officers of the Bermuda Militia Artillery, the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps, the Bermuda Rifles and the Bermuda Regiment or their Reserves who on or after the 17th November, 1952, have completed the requisite period of qualifying service as here inafter defined shall be eligible for Decoration and Clasps.

(ii) In cases where qualifying service terminated prior to the 3rd September, 1939, an officer must have completed 20 years' efficient service in accordance with regulations then in force.

(iii) In cases where qualifying service terminated on or after the 3rd September, 1939, an officer must have completed 12 years' voluntary con tinuous efficient service as defined in these reg ulations.

(iv) An officer who has been awarded the Decoration and who completes a further six years' continu ous efficient qualifying service as defined in these regulations shall be awarded a Clasp to be attached to the ribbon by which the Decoration is suspended and for every further period of six years' qualifying service under similar conditions an additional Clasp shall be awarded.

(v) An officer who has completed 11 years' continu ous service on or after the 3rd September, 1939, and whose service is terminated on account of disability of a permanent nature such disability being directly attributable to his service may be considered for the award of the Decoration.

5 The subsidiary title of the Decoration awarded to officers who complete the requisite period of qualifying service while serving in the aforesaid Forces of Bermuda shall be "Bermuda" and the word "Bermuda" shall be inscribed on the bar brooch of the Decoration so awarded.

6 An officer on whom the Decoration is conferred is entitled to the addition after his name of the letters "E.D.".

7 Qualifying service is defined and shall be reckoned as follows:

(a) Commissioned Service as described below shall be re-
garded as qualifying service, provided that none of it has been counted as qualifying service for the grant of any other Long Service Decoration, Long Service Good Con duct or Efficiency Medal or Clasp:

(i) on the active list of the Bermuda Forces afore said, such service having been certified as effi cient each year by the Officer Commanding the Force in accordance with the regulations gov erning service in such Force;

(ii) service in a duly recognised and constituted Of ficers' Training or Cadet Corps after attaining the age of 17 years, such service being reckoned in full if the service and corps are equivalent in status to those of the Officers' Training Corps (not Cadet Corps) in Great Britain;

(iii) service in Reserves to the Bermuda Forces aforesaid, but only such commissioned service as may have been rendered while those Reserves performed annual training equivalent to that normally carried out by their parent force or forces provided the officer concerned also per formed such training, and that such service has been certified each year as efficient as defined in the regulations of such force;

(iv) service in Her Majesty's other Auxiliary Military Forces of the Commonwealth including their Re serves and associated Cadet or Officers' Training Corps, such service in accordance with the reg ulations under the Royal Warrant of the 17th November, 1952, and applicable to the Force or Forces in which or with whose Reserves or asso ciated Cadet or Officers' Training Corps the ser vice was rendered.

(b) (i) Half of any time during which an officer may have served, after attaining the age of 17 years, on the active list in the ranks of a Cadet Corps or as a cadet in the Officers' Training Corps in any of Her Majesty's Aux iliary Military Forces of the Commonwealth (including their Reserves), provided that as a cadet he was required to undergo supervised military training and to attain annually a certain standard of military efficiency;

(ii) half of any time during which an Officer may have served in the ranks, after attaining the age of 17 years, of any of the authorised Auxiliary Forces of the Commonwealth, except as provided in paragraph (c)(iii).

(c) War service as follows:

(i) an officer who was serving in the Bermuda Forces or their Reserve on the 2nd September, 1939, and who was embodied or called out for service on or after that date will reckon as dou ble his service between the date on which he was embodied or called out and that date on which he was released from embodiment. (No service subsequent to the 7th April, 1949 may count as double qualifying service). A period of two months or more efficient embodied service between 2nd September, 1939, and 7th April, 1949, occurring in any calendar year reckoned from the 1st January will be allowed to count as the equivalent of efficient service for that year;

(ii) commissioned service during the period 4th Au gust, 1914, to 31st December, 1921, and/or 2nd September, 1939, to the 7th April, 1949 (inclusive) in the Royal Navy, the Regular Army, the Royal Air Force or any other Permanent Force of the Commonwealth, provided that the officer was granted such Commission between the 4th of August, 1914, and the 11th Novem ber, 1918, and/or between the 2nd September, 1939, and 15th August, 1945 (inclusive) and subsequently commissioned into the Bermuda Forces within six months of disembodiment will count as single qualifying service;

(iii) an officer who was serving in the ranks of any of
Her Majesty's Auxiliary Military Forces on the 2nd September, 1939, and was embodied or called out for service on or after that date and was subsequently commissioned in any such force may reckon his embodied service in the ranks as single qualifying service;

(iv) any period during which an officer of the Bermuda Forces was relegated to unemployment between the 2nd September, 1939, and the 7th April, 1949, otherwise than at his own request, or for redundancy or inefficiency, will count as single qualifying service;

(v) service in the ranks of the Royal Navy, the Reg ular Army, the Royal Air Force or any other Permanent Force of the Commonwealth during the period from the 4th August, 1914, to the 31st December, 1921, and/or from the 2nd September, 1939, to the 1st November, 1947 (inclusive), provided that the individual was commissioned into the Bermuda Forces within six months of disembodiment shall count as half qualifying service.

8 Service qualifying for the Decoration must be continuous except:

(i) that service in different Auxiliary Military Forces not of the same territory of the Commonwealth shall be deemed to be continuous if any break in service occurring between service in one such force and another does not exceed 12 months;

(ii) that service in the aforesaid forces of Bermuda shall be deemed to be continuous if any break in service is not due to the individual's own request or to his own fault and does not exceed 12 months;

(iii) that the periods when the individual is resident in a foreign country or any territory of the Com monwealth where there are no Auxiliary Military Forces shall not be deemed to constitute a break in service provided that he rejoins such a force within six months of his arrival in a Common wealth territory where such a force exists;

(iv) that service in the Royal Navy, the Regular Army, the Royal Air Force or any other Perma nent Force forming part of Her Majesty's Forces in any part of the Commonwealth or in the Re serves of such forces or in the Reserves of any of Her Majesty's Auxiliary Military Forces in any part of the Commonwealth although inadmissi ble as qualifying service (save in the circum stances hereinbefore described) will not be reck oned as breaking continuity of service.

9 Applications for the Decoration shall be made in writing to the Governor by the Commanding Officer of the Local Forces (or their Re serves) in which the officer recommended for the decoration is or was serving when he completed the period of qualifying service, supported by a statement of the officers' service in Form A appended to these Regula tions, accompanied in each case by a statement certifying that the officer recommended holds (or has held) a Commission in the Bermuda Forces, that he has completed the qualifying period of meritorious service that he is an efficient and thoroughly capable officer of proved capacity, and that he is in every way deserving of the Efficiency Decoration. Applications for Clasps should be dealt with in a similar manner.

10 The Decoration will be awarded on the authority of the Governor and a notification of its award will be published in the Bermuda Gov ernment Gazette. A register of awards of the Decoration will be kept at the Headquarters of the Bermuda Regiment.

11 When the Decoration has been lost and it is desired to replace it a declaration must be made before a magistrate stating the circum stances under which the loss occurred, and the rank, name and Corps of the officer to whom the Decoration belonged. This declaration shall be forwarded to the Governor through the usual channel of correspondence in the case of an officer who is still serving and direct in the case of an officer who has retired, and if the explanation as to loss is considered satisfactory the Decoration will be replaced on repayment being made by the officer to cover the cost of the Decoration.

12 (1) A recipient of the Decoration who is convicted of a criminal offence, or who is dismissed or removed from his Corps for misconduct shall forfeit the Decoration unless the Governor shall otherwise direct.

(2) A Decoration forfeited under the provisions of the foregoing paragraph may be restored by the Governor at his discretion.

(3) A notice of forfeiture or of restoration shall in every case be published in the Bermuda Government Gazette.

13 In undress and service uniform when ribbons only are worn, the grant of Clasps will be denoted by the wearing on the ribbon of a small silver rose or roses, according to the number of Clasps awarded. The rose or roses will not be worn on the ribbon when the Decoration itself is worn.

FORM A

THE EFFICIENCY DECORATION (BERMUDA)

Statement of Service of [blank] of the [blank] Corps.

N.B. — Service which under the Royal Warrant and the Regulations made thereunder is to count two-fold or as half qualifying service should be shown in the first place by the actual dates of such service, but only the equivalent single service for quali fying purposes should be carried forward as service in the "Total Qualifying Service" column.

Unit [blank]

Rank [blank]

Single or half qualifying service:

From [blank]

To [blank]

Service qualifying two-fold:

From [blank]

To [blank]

Particulars (War Service) [blank].

Total qualifying service:

[blank] Yrs. [blank] Mths. [blank] Days.

Remarks [blank]

I certify that the above is a correct statement of the service of [blank] and that his total qualifying service amounts to [blank] years [blank] months [blank] days.

Date [blank]

(Signed) .......................................
Adjutant              

(Countersigned) .......................................
Officer Commanding.         

.......................................Corps.

 

The above statement is to be completed by the Commanding Of ficer of the Auxiliary Force in which the period of qualifying service is completed. Where the period of qualifying service is in more than one Auxiliary Force, the Commanding Officer signing the statement must satisfy himself that all service reckoned is qualifying service, and as to the period to be so reckoned.