Time served

is a funny way to earn these: the one on the left was for living in the airconditioned luxury of the Hyatt Regency in Riyadh for a few weeks in early 1991, with occasional picnics under the stars with a sleeping bag in the back of a silver Toyota Landcruiser; the one on the right is for polishing my shoes each Tuesday in termtime for the last half dozen years, and having a few paid holidays afloat or in pleasant company ashore.

Very thoughtful of them to include BFBS civilians in the (first) Gulf War campaign medal; and the motley collection of schoolmasters and mistresses of the CCF in the Queen's Jubilee Medal, and I wear them with pride - but with no illusions that they have anything to do with what my Forces friends do to earn their campaign honours.