Awarded to Commander John Henry Pipe RN (1890-1944). Obverse: head of King George VI. Legend: 'GEORGIVS VI D : G : BR : OMN : REX : F : D : I NDIAE : IMP'. Reverse: A lion standing (left) on a prostrate dragon, its right paw resting on the latter's head. Inscription above: '1939 1945'. Fitted with a bar and blue ribbon with wide red borders and a narrow central red stripe with white borders.

The son of a policeman, Pipe joined the Royal Navy as a boy seaman on 29 March 1906 and signed up for twelve years service on 18 January 1890. He was promoted to Mate on 11 December 1915 and spent most of World War I in light cruiser HMS 'Gloucester', being present at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. In 1917, now a Petty Officer he was with the 8th Light Cruiser Squadron in the Adriatic. Pipe was also gunner in 'Vivid' I - the seamanship, signalling and telegraphy school based at Devonport. After the war he was commissioned as a Lieutenant on 11 December 1920, Lieutenant Commander 11 December 1922 and Commander on 30th June 1932. At the start of World War II, he was in command of destroyer depot ship HMS 'Greenwich' and continued in that role until his death in 1944, although officially retired from 18 January 1940. HMS 'Greenwich' had a maintainance function, she was based a Scapa Flow from 1939 to 1941, then deployed to Canada and Iceland in 1942 before returning to Scapa Flow. Commander Pipe died in a Glasgow hospital following an operation in October 1944, shortly after his son David John Alwyne Pipe had been killed on active service in France.