How were Mentioned in Despatches decorations awarded?

My question is, what IS a "mentioned in despatches" significant of?

I think the closest US equivalent is the Bronze Star.

What I knew already, during the war the oak leaf is pinned to recipient's tunic, and after the war, it is pinned to the campaign medal, or, where no campaign medal has been designated, the General Service Medal. It is not to be pinned to any other decoration.

More or less.

The practice came from the period before there were medals handed out for notable conduct*. Unless you were the commanding officer, the only way to show gratitude was by promoting men or failing that just keeping them in active employment. But to do either the individual had to be mentioned in official records.

In the Royal Navy the official after action reports that were dispatched to the Admiralty (or the Admiral on overseas stations) often contained a list of names of men who had impressed the commander. For Midshipmen, Lieutenants and Masters and Commanders this held great importance, as it greatly increased the chances of promotion and/or being given command of their own ship. The tradition in the RN was for the first officer on a ship to get a promotion after a successful action (one reason that the Navy ended up with three or four times as many Commanders as their were ships for them to command**). But this was unlikely to happen if the Captain omitted his XO's name from the official dispatch.

It was just as important for Captains themselves, as being mentioned increased the chances of them being given another command and therefore being given full, rather than half, pay. It also increased the chances of them being given some of the more interesting duties.

(*That is official medals. Medals were handed out, but these were effectively privately-backed awards paid for through donations. The first I can think of were the medals that were handed out to those who took part in the Battle of the Nile - although there may have been earlier examples. Some private concerns, merchant fleets and owners, would sometimes award (naval) Captains with gifts such as an expensive sword as a thank you for their service.)

(**The first officer on a rated RN ship at this period held the rank of Lieutenant, the idea of employing Commanders as XO's on major ships came around a lot later. Commanders were the captains of the larger unrated ships, usually Sloops.)

I suspect that the situation was similar in the army.

The importance of being mentioned in dispatches dropped somewhat when official medals and awards started to be handed out rather than promotions. But as noted above you still had to be mentioned in dispatches before you could be considered for a medal.

Actually, I think the closest US equivilent is the Commendation Medal, or the Achievement Medal.

Most of the medals I can pull up any history on seem to date to the first world war (the DSM and DSC - effectively the same thing, although the latter was for officers only until 1993). It appears that medals are usually presented by the monarch or their representative. In the latter case I'm guessing that the senior officer on overseas stations could probably fill this function, although this most likely never happens these days as it would probably be easier to send the recipient home (or wait for them to be moved back home at the end of their deployment).

In the case of posthumous awards, these are presented to the next of kin in a private ceremony before the public one.

Of course the British awards system doesn't just include military awards, but also civilian ones - which I'd guess comprise most awards handed out these days. Based on what I've sort of heard over the years (the honours system and awards is badly reported in the mainstream media except in individual cases) it seems that the current tradition is for all major medals to be presented at Buckingham Palace, regardless of the medal being given or the rank of the recipient.

I could be wrong here, as I'm having to read between the lines and make a lot of guesses based on incomplete information.