(Updated November 2019) This large silver shield - in fact more a shallow dish standing on three small pad feet - comprises a wide rim and a well in the centre with a slightly convex base. There are 125 silver Naval General Service Medals set in a matt silver ground with embossed decorative motifs between them. The medals, designed by William Wyon R.A., are arranged in concentric circles to show alternate obverse and reverse sides. The obverse bears the Queen's profile, with 'VICTORIA REGINA 1848', and the reverse has Britannia seated on a seahorse, with trident and olive branch.

One hundred and four medal bars from the medals, with the names of the battles for which they were awarded, are set in the outer and inner edges of the rim. They include the Glorious First of June, 1794; St Vincent, 1797; Camperdown, 1797; the Nile, 1798; Trafalgar, 1805; Boat Service (various dates); Navarino, 1827, and other actions.

The silver centre of the shield is engraved with the full coat of arms of Greenwich Hospital, including supporters and crest and a scroll inscribed: 'Reg Hosp Gren.' Below is inscribed: 'THIS SHIELD THE PROPERTY OF GREENWICH HOSPITAL WAS MADE BY ORDER OF THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF THE ADMIRALTY FROM UNCLAIMED WAR MEDALS OF DECEASED IN PENSIONERS OF GREENWICH HOSPITAL 1876.
RT. HON. G.W.HUNT M.P. 1ST LORD
SIR MASSEY LOPES BART. MP. CIVIL LORD
NAVAL LORDS ADMIRAL SIR A. MILNE G.C.B.
VICE ADMIRAL G.T. PHIPPS HORNBY
CAPTAIN LORD GILFORD RN.'

The reverse of the shield shows the other side of the medals, with the edge inscribed in cursive script: 'Assay Office Goldsmiths Hall December 2nd 1875. This Shield weighing 138 oz 9 dwts was Made to receive 125 Stamped Silver Medals.'

The Naval General Service Medal was a campaign decoration approved in 1847, for retrospective issue to officers and men of the Royal Navy who had taken part in actions between 1793 and 1840. Bars naming the actions were mounted on the silk ribbon, which was white with narrow navy-blue borders.

Normally the NGSM was only awarded to claimants who were still alive in 1847 and who expressly applied for it. The records of the former Royal Naval Museum, Greenwich, explain why the 125 here were unclaimed: 'Silver Shield made up of War Medals granted by H.M. Queen Victoria for battles which had been fought prior to her reign, but for which medals had not been granted. During the time that elapsed from Her Majesty's order and the issue of the medals many of the men had died and no relatives being found to claim them they were formed into this shield by order of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty whose names are shewn in the centre.'