Distinguished Service Order

Distinguished Service Order
Medal of the order
Awarded by United Kingdom and Commonwealth
Type	Order (decoration) with one degree
Eligibility	members of the armed forces
Awarded for	"Distinguished services during active operations against the enemy."
Status	Currently awarded
Sovereign	Queen Elizabeth II
Grades	Companion
Statistics
Established	6 September 1886
Total inductees	Victoria: 1,323 Edward VII: 78 George V: 9,900 George VI: 4,943 Total: 16,244
Precedence
Next (higher)	Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire
Next (lower)	Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order
Ribbon bar of the order

The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth of Nations, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.

Instituted on 6 September 1886 by Queen Victoria in a Royal Warrant published in the The London Gazette on 9 November, the first DSOs awarded were dated 25 November 1886. It is typically awarded to officers ranked major (or its equivalent) or higher, but the honour has sometimes been awarded to especially valorous junior officers. During the First World War, 8,981 DSOs were awarded, each award being announced in The London Gazette.

The order was established for rewarding individual instances of meritorious or distinguished service in war. It was a military order, until recently for officers only, and normally given for service under fire or under conditions equivalent to service in actual combat with the enemy, although it was awarded between 1914 and 1916 under circumstances which could not be regarded as under fire (often to staff officers, which caused resentment among front-line officers). After 1 January 1917, commanders in the field were instructed to recommend this award only for those serving under fire. Prior to 1943, the order could be given only to someone mentioned in despatches. The order is generally given to officers in command, above the rank of captain. A number of more junior officers were awarded the DSO, and this was often regarded as an acknowledgement that the officer had only just missed out on the award of the Victoria Cross. In 1942, the award of the DSO was extended to officers of the Merchant Navy who had performed acts of gallantry while under enemy attack.

Since 1993, its award has been restricted solely to distinguished service (i.e. leadership and command by any rank), with the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross being introduced as the second highest award for gallantry. It has, however, despite some very fierce campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, remained an officers-only award and it has yet to be awarded to a non-commissioned rank.