Distinguished Service Medal (United Kingdom)
The Distinguished Service Medal was (until 1993) a military decoration awarded to personnel of the Royal Navy and members of the other services, and formerly also to personnel of other Commonwealth countries, up to and including the rank of Chief Petty Officer, for bravery and resourcefulness on active service at sea.
The medal was established on 14 October 1914. It was the Other Ranks' equivalent to the Distinguished Service Cross, which was awarded to commissioned officers and Warrant Officers, although it ranked below that decoration in order of precedence, between the George Medal and the Military Medal. Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal are entitled to use the post-nominal letters "DSM". In 1993, the DSM was discontinued, and since then the Distinguished Service Cross has been awarded to personnel of all ranks.
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“Human life consists in mutual service. No grief, pain, misfortune, or “broken heart,” is excuse for cutting off one’s life while any power of service remains. But when all usefulness is over, when one is assured of an unavoidable and imminent death, it is the simplest of human rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one.”
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935)