Distinguished Service Order

The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a British military decoration for officers, awarded for distinguished service in war, above all for leadership in action. It was instituted by Queen Victoria in 1886. In prestige it ranked second only to the Victoria Cross, and recipients added the letters DSO after their names.

An order for officers

The order was open only to officers of the army and navy, and from 1918 also of the air force. It usually went to commanders with the rank of major or lieutenant-colonel and above. A junior officer could receive it for gallantry only a little short of that for which the Victoria Cross was given. A prior mention in despatches was required. The insignia was a white enamelled cross with gilt edges, gold until 1889, worn on a red ribbon with blue edges. From 1916 further awards were marked by a bar on the ribbon.

In the war

The Great War brought the most awards in the order’s history. Depending on the count, there were from just under 9,000 to 9,881 crosses, counting up to 1919, plus 768 first bars. In the first years of the war the order also went to staff officers who had not been under fire, which caused resentment at the front. From 1 January 1917 commanders were therefore to recommend it only for those serving under fire. At least 1,329 honorary awards went to officers of allied states.

In the chronicle of the war the order often appears alongside spectacular feats by young officers. Badly wounded in October 1914 at Meteren, Lieutenant Bernard Montgomery received it, a rare distinction for so young an officer. Naval airmen received it for the raid on Düsseldorf and the attack on the Zeppelin works at Friedrichshafen, and Lieutenant Sydney Winn for his part in sinking the Mesudiye, for which his commander received the Victoria Cross. The same hierarchy was repeated over England in 1916: William Leefe Robinson received the Victoria Cross for shooting down SL 11, while his comrades from No. 39 Squadron, Frederick Sowrey and Wulstan Tempest, received the Distinguished Service Order for L 32 and L 31. In 1918 it was awarded to Stuart Culley, who shot down L 53 in a fighter that took off from a lighter towed by a destroyer.

On other fronts it went to Lieutenant-Colonel Hugh Souter for the charge at Agagia in 1916, to T. E. Lawrence for the battle of Tafileh, to Captain Tod for the pursuit near Ana and to Lieutenant Francis Craven, who in October 1918 took almost 600 men off the sinking Otranto. Many of the war’s commanders, such as Frederick Maude and Hugh Trenchard, had worn it since the colonial wars. The order is still awarded, since 1993 also to non-commissioned officers and other ranks.