Cross of Valour (Greece)

Cross of Valour Αριστείον Ανδρείας Aristeion Andreias
Gold Cross of the Cross of Valour (1974 version)
Awarded by Greece
Type	Three-class military decoration
Eligibility	Greek military personnel and allies assigned to or with Greek units.
Awarded for	Bravery or distinguished leadership in wartime
Status	Instituted but inactive (wartime award only)
Statistics
Established	13 May 1913
Total awarded	59 Commander's Crosses 13,068 Gold Crosses 65,256 Silver Crosses
Precedence
Next (higher)	Medal for Gallantry
Next (lower)	War Cross
Ribbon of the Cross of Valour

The Cross of Valour (Greek: Αριστείον Ανδρείας, Aristeion Andreias, lit. "Gallantry/Bravery Award") is the second highest (and until 1974 the highest) military decoration of the Greek state, awarded for acts of bravery or distinguished leadership on the field of battle. It has been instituted three times, first on 13 May 1913 during the Balkan Wars but not issued until 1921 during the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, then on 11 November 1940 shortly after the outbreak of the Greco-Italian War and finally in 1974.

The award was established through Law ΓΡΣΗ/30-4-1913, as an order rather than a simple medal, but was not formally issued until the Royal Decree of 21 March 1921 (ΦΕΚ 47Α’/23-3-1921). The only exceptions to this were King Constantine I, who as head of the Order wore the Commander's Cross, and Vice Admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis, who received the Commander's Cross from the king on 15 October 1914.

As the Cross of Valour was practically defunct, for the operations in World War I, the Greek participation in the Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War and the early stages of the Asia Minor Campaign, the 1917 War Cross (originally instituted by the Government of National Defence during the National Schism) was awarded as the senior award for gallantry and distinguished leadership. For this purpose, when the Cross of Valour was re-instituted in 1921, the Royal Decree allowed the awardees of the War Cross – which was tainted in the eyes of the royalist government by its Venizelist associations – to petition for its replacement with the new Cross of Valour, but in the event, very few chose to do so.