Instituted in 1930 to replace and standardise the long service awards of the Colonial Auxiliary Forces Decoration and the Territorial Decoration. Recipients are entitled to the postnominals E.D. It was awarded for: 20 years commissioned service on the Active List, of which 10 years in the ranks can be counted if applicable. Note: This was reduced to 12 years in 1947. At this time clasps for additional periods of qualifying service were also approved. Half of any time spent in the ranks may be counted towards the qualifying period and time spent on continuous full-time service as an officer during the period 3 September 1939 until 28 April 1952 inclusive may be counted as double qualifying time. For Australians, the ED is suspended from an AUSTRALIA bar. The first ED was gazetted in 1935 and the last in 1986. Additional 6-year periods of service are recognised by additional bars . The ED was replaced by the National Medal in 1975, although officers with the ED could still accrue bars and those with contributing time could still be awarded the ED, but no new entitlement was permitted.
