Awarded in 1943 to Admiral of the Fleet Sir Dudley Pound (1877-1943). Badge, a gold cross, pattee convexed, enamelled red, edged blue with two silver crossed swords within the arms. Obverse: in the centre on a blue ground encircled with white, the words 'FOR MERIT'. Reverse; in centre, a Royal cypher in gold, 'GRI' the whole surrounded by a wreath enamelled green. The cross is surmounted by a Tudor Crown enamelled in proper colours and suspended by a ring and loop from a neck ribbon half blue half crimson.

Alfred Dudley Pickman Rogers Pound entered ‘Britannia’ as a cadet in January 1891. He specialized in torpedoes and commanded a torpedo boat at Queen’s Victoria’s diamond jubilee fleet review at Spithead in 1897. He was subsequently torpedo officer of HMS ‘Grafton’ in 1902 and HMS ‘King Edward VII’ in 1905. He was promoted to commander in June 1909 and captain in December 1914. He commanded HMS ‘Colossus’ at the Battle of Jutland. Pound was then chosen, in 1917, to launch the plans division of the Admiralty, a post that marked him out for future high command. By the end of 1917 he was Director of Operations (home). A series of sea and staff appointments followed which saw him rise through the service. He was promoted rear-admiral in March 1926, became Second Sea Lord in August 1932 and appointed KCB in 1933.
In September 1935 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean. No further promotion was anticipated but fate intervened and Pound, by dint of being the only available candidate, was made First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff in June 1939. Pound was, perhaps, not the grand strategist the Navy might have hoped for in the first half of the war, but he threw himself into the role and bore its very considerable strains until illness forced him to resign in September 1943. Appropriately enough for a man in lifelong naval service, he died on Trafalgar Day that year.