Africa General Service Medal
Medal and Ribbon
Awarded by UK and Commonwealth Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
Type	Campaign medal Campaign medal A campaign medal is a military decoration which is awarded to a member of the military who serves in a designated military operation or performs duty in a geographical theater...
Eligibility	British and Africa forces.
Awarded for	Campaign service
Campaign	Africa
Description
Clasps	North West Frontier 1908 East Africa 1914 East Africa 1915 East Africa 1918 Shimber Berris 1914-15 Nyasaland 1915 Jubaland1917-18 Nigeria 1918 Somaliland 1920 Kenya
Statistics
Established	1902

The Africa General Service Medal 1902-1956 was a campaign medal of the Commonwealth

Commonwealth

Commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has sometimes been synonymous with "republic."More recently it has been used for fraternal associations of some sovereign nations...

. It was awarded for minor campaigns in tropical Africa, it was still current in 1914 and nine later clasps were issued. The medal is never seen without a clasp and some are very rare, most being granted to local forces like the King's Africa Rifles.

Description

• The obverse with uncrowned head of Queen Elisabeth II and the inscription "REGINA·F:D:ELIZABETH·II·DEI·GRATIA".
• The reverse with a highly symbolic design depicting Britania offering peace and law to Africa as a new day breaks

Clasps

East Africa 1914, East Africa 1915, East Africa 1918 all mainly for service against the Turkhana tribe.

Shimber Berris 1914-15, recalled service in two brief campaigns in November 1914 and February 1915 in which Indian troops were largely employed to destroy fortifications in Somaliland.

Nyasaland 1915, was granted mainly to the KAR and local volunteers for service during a rebellion in the Shire Highlands.

Jubaland1917-18, was awarded for operations against the Aulihan

Aulihan

The Aulihan are a Somali clan, a division of the larger Ogaden clan, living on both sides of the Kenya - Somalia border.The Aulihan migrated from the Ogaden region of Western Ethiopia in response to pressure from the expanding Ethiopian empire and had taken control of the hinterland of the lower...

tribe along the Juba river.

Nigeria 1918, was granted for service during a revolt by the Egba tribe between Abeokuta and Lagos.

Somaliland 1920, was a much larger affair and commemorated the last of the campaigns against 'the Mad Mullah' and was awarded to Army, Navy and Air Force personnel.

Kenya, this clasp was awarded fifty years after the medal was introduced and by far the most common, for service between 21fs October 1952 and 17th November 1956 during the Emergency, declared as a result of the Mau-Mau rebellion by the Kikuyu tribe. A large number of British regiments and Royal Air Force squadrons received the medal.