Obverse: Bust of Queen Victoria, crowned and veiled, with order (left). Legend: 'VICTORIA REGINA ET IMPERATRIX'. Reverse: at the foot of a palm tree a trophy of flags, cannons, the royal shield, a capstan, etc. Legend: 'ARMIS EXPOSCERE PACEM'. Exergue: 'CHINA 1900'. Inscription on edge: 'G.KEMP, CH. P.O., H.M.S.WOODCOCK'. Fitted with a cerise ribbon edged with yellow. Mounted on a bar with three other medals.

George Kemp (1869-1930) was born in Stoke Damerel, near Devonport, Devon. In the 1871 census, his mother Elizabeth says that her husband is a seafarer. This is probably George Kemp who married Elizabeth Crocker at Stoke Damerel in 1865. By 1881, she was a widow, working as a nurse for a family in Clapham, London. Her son George, at this time was a pupil at the Greenwich Hospital School. He then worked as a dock labourer, entering the Royal Navy on 2 October 1884 and signing up for ten years’ service on 1 May 1887. In HMS 'Boadicea', he took part in the expedition again the Sultan of Witu, Fumo Bakari in 1890. In 1891, he was in the troop ship 'Crocodile'. He also served in the river gunboat HMS 'Woodcock' on the China Station from 1899-1900. Kemp was made a Chief Petty Officer on 1 October 1899. After qualifying for his Royal Naval Pension, he married Florence Alice Exton in Grimsby in 1907 and they settled in Cleethorpes where he worked for the North Lincolnshire Fruit Preserving Works, Grimsby (jam makers). The couple had a daughter Florence Ellen in 1908.

George Kemp was called up during World War I and served at 'Pembroke', the shore base at Chatham until demobilised in 1919.