Honours bias 'favours officers over soldiers' (British Army!)
Soldiers from the lower ranks have been overlooked in the honours system, critics argue, with far more awards going to officers
They are intended to symbolise the Monarchs and her nations gratitude towards members of the armed forces for their exceptional loyalty and devotion to duty.
But an inspection of the Queens New Year and Birthday Honours list has revealed that the honours are awarded far more frequently to officers than to ordinary soldiers.
Critics now say the apparent discrimination against rank and file soldiers threatens to undermine morale amongst the troops.
In the most recent New Years Honours list there were 52 awards issued to members of the Army and Army reserve, but of these 48 went to officers and warrant, or non-commissioned, officers, with only one awarded to a staff sergeant, one to a colour sergeant, one to a sergeant and one to a rifleman.
There was a similar ratio in the Royal Navy, where 21 awards were made to officers and Warrant Officers and only three to more junior ranks.
The inbalance was even more prominent in the RAF, where 24 officers and three Warrant Officers received honours, with none going to ordinary airmen and women.
Senior officers honoured in the most recent New Year list include Lieutenant General Nick Carter, Commander Land Forces, who was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of Bath (KCB) and Major General Nick Eeles, the General Officer Commanding Scotland, who received a CBE.
The junior ranks who were honoured were Staff Sergeant Jonathan Winfield, of the Intelligence Corps; Sergeant Michael Clark, of the Adjutant Generals Corps and Rifleman Michael Swain, of The Rifles, who received OBEs. Rifleman Swain lost both his legs in an IED explosion in Helmand, Afghanistan, in 2009, and has since taken part in charity fundraising, including cycling 500 miles from Edinburgh to London.
Colour Sergeant Anselmo Ochellow, of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment Army Reserve, received a Queens Volunteer Reserves Medal.
Individuals are nominated for inclusion in the New Year and Queens Birthday Honours list by the respective service, before their names are sent to the Cabinet Office for approval.
These non-operational honours are distinct to battlefield honours, and are designed to recognise meritorious service, achievement above what is normally expected and the performance of ordinary duties in difficult conditions or with such devotion that an individual has become an inspiration and an example to his/her comrades.
The Ministry of Defences guidelines state that recommendations for non-operational honours need not be based entirely on long and good service but should reveal outstanding services during the fairly recent past, as well as the discharge of duties additional or superior to those normally pertaining to the individuals rank and employment such as significant charity work and noteworthy sporting achievements.
But Colonel John Wilson, who edited the British Army Review journal between 2002 and 2011, said the apparent bias towards giving these honours to officers threatened to undermine the status of the officer corps in the eyes of their soldiers.
He said: The non-operational awards system is broken because it sees little merit in anyone who is not an officer. Yet the operational reporting from Afghanistan constantly praises in the highest terms the performance of junior ranks. Are they so different in barracks that they are never worthy of an award? Surely not.
A close examination of honours lists from recent years appears to confirm critics fears that the system is skewed in favour of the more senior ranks.
In the Queens Birthday Honours last year there were 70 awards for the Army, with 63 going to officers and five to warrant officers, with only one to a staff sergeant and one to a corporal.
The Navy honours went to 21 officers, three Warrant Officers and two Chief Petty Officers, with none to more junior ranks, while 22 officers in the RAF, along with three Warrant Officers received awards, compared to just three ordinary airmen.
It was a similar picture with the 2011 New Years Honours, when 49 Army officers and eight warrant officers were awarded honours, compared to one corporal and one lance corporal. In the Navy 23 officers and three Warrant Officers received honours, with three to junior ranks, while in the RAF it was a similar picture, with 30 going to officers and Warrant Officers and just one to a flight sergeant.
In 2010 there were 53 awards for the Army, with 45 going to officers, six to warrant officers, one to a staff sergeant and one to a sergeant. There were no awards issued to anyone with the rank of corporal or below.
The situation in recent years has been contrasted with that which existed before 1993, when British servicemen and women were still eligible to receive the British Empire Medal for meritorious service, which critics say was given more frequently to soldiers in the junior ranks and was sometimes referred to as 'the squaddies medal.
In the 1980 New Years Honour List, the BEM was awarded to 62 soldiers of the rank of staff sergeant or below, 14 of whom were corporals. In 1990, 67 officers received various awards, from knighthoods to MBEs, whilst 64 ordinary soldiers were given BEMs.
But the abolition of the BEM left junior ranks competing with officers for a small number of OBEs. The BEM lay in abeyance until the Queens Diamond Jubilee in June 2012 when it was revived for civilians.
Lawrence Skuse, 62, a former Warrant Officer 2 with the Royal Regiment of Wales who received a BEM in 1986 for his intelligence work in Berlin, said: Unfortunately there is a common misconception that only officers are capable of intellectual tasks. Sadly, this summarises the attitude of many officers towards the 'thick squaddies under their command and this is translated into honours and awards.
He added: I was fortunate in receiving a BEM in the 1986 Queens Birthday Honours, before John Major democratised the honours system. It was well intended, but for other ranks below WO2 it was a death knell for honours since most commanding officers simply refused to accept that 'other ranks were entitled to an 'officers medal.
Colonel Wilson, who commanded a field artillery battalion and served in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Central America and was also British Defence Attache in Dublin, said it was crucial to service morale that the honours sytem was equitable.
He said: Officers have better accommodation, treatment, pay and so on than other ranks, so it is important that officers behave fairly towards their soldiers. The honours system is so skewed that you can only see it as a cosy scheme by which officers reward each other with no apparent cost to the taxpayer or themselves but at the cost of showing that the officer corps looks after its own.
Allan Mallinson, the author and military historian, said: John Majors suspension of the BEM, saying that the MBE should be awarded instead, was a piece of misplaced egalitarianism. Many of us at the time argued that this would reduce the number of awards to NCOs because the competition for the limited number of MBEs would be so intense
The sooner the BEM is reinstated for the military, the sooner we shall see a fuller recognition of meritorious service in the honours lists.
The Ministry of Defence said that honours tend to go more frequently to officers because the majority of recipients are being recognised for meritorious service over many years, and that that those who demonstrate the individual merit required for an honour will in all likelyhood already have been promoted to a higher rank by the time the awards recommendation is made.
A spokesman for the MoD said: State Honours recognise exceptional achievement or service and are always awarded on merit. They represent the full range of military activities and great care is taken over the selection of each individual.
Additional reporting by Olivia Rudgard
