Badge: Order of Merit 1902-10 (military)

Awarded to Admiral of the Fleet John Arbuthnot Fisher (1841-1920). 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, 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.

Appointed 30 June 1905, London Gazette.
Fisher was a notable technical and strategic innovator who played a major role in modernising the Royal Navy prior to World War I. In 1886 he was appointed Director of Naval Ordinance and Torpedoes. His time as First Sea Lord from 1904 to 1910 saw the introduction of the turbine engine in the Royal Navy and the construction of HMS ‘Dreadnought’. He concentrated the fleet closer to the British Isles to meet the threat from Germany. Briefly appointed First Sea Lord again during 1914 after the British defeat at Coronel, he resigned after seven months following disagreements with Churchill over the Dardanelles expedition.