Awarded to Captain Clifford Rowland Baxter (1897-1977). Obverse: Head of King George V (left). Legend: 'GEORGIVS V BRITT : OMN : REX ET IND : IMP:'. Reverse: Within a laurel garland in relief, the bow view of a drifter, a ship in the distance (right).Exergue: 'FOR WAR SERVICE MERCANTILE MARINE 1914-1918'. Inscription on edge: 'CLIFFORD R BAXTER'. Fitted with a bar and light green and scarlet watered silk ribbon divided by a narrow white stripe. Mounted on a bar with four others.

Clifford Rowland Baxter was born and died in Dovercourt, Essex near the port of Harwich. Although he did not come from a maritime background, he was apprenticed on 26 Aug 1911 to John Henry Ropner - owner of a company of shipowners and shipbuilders based in County Durham. During World War 1, Baxter was noted on the crew list of Ropner screw steamer ‘Brookby’ in 1915 as an apprentice and then 3rd mate - the vessel was sunk by ‘U-60’ two years later. He received a certificate of competency for as master for foreign-going steamships in 1921. During the Second World War he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his part in evacuating troops from Dunkirk in the L & N.E.R. steamer ‘Prague’.

He married Edith Marion Cook in 1923.