The Decoration for Officers of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, post-nominal letters VD until c. 1947 and VRD thereafter, was instituted in 1908. It could be awarded to part-time commissioned officers in the United Kingdom's Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve after twenty years of service as efficient and thoroughly capable officers. The decoration was a Naval version of the Volunteer Officers' Decoration and its successor, the Territorial Decoration. The decoration could also be awarded to part-time commissioned officers in the Naval Volunteer Reserves of Colonial Auxiliary Forces throughout the British Empire. The award of the decoration was discontinued in the United Kingdom in 1966, when the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, composed of civilian volunteers, was merged with the Royal Naval Reserve, composed of Merchant Navy seamen. It was superseded by its identical sister decoration, the Decoration for Officers of the Royal Naval Reserve. The New Zealand version, the Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve Decoration, is still being awarded. Origins In 1892, the Volunteer Officers' Decoration was instituted as an award for long and meritorious service by officers of the United Kingdom's Volunteer Force. In 1894, the grant of the decoration was extended by Royal Warrant to commissioned officers of volunteer forces throughout the British Empire and a separate new decoration was instituted, the Volunteer Officers' Decoration for India and the Colonies. In 1899, the Volunteer Officers' Decoration for India and the Colonies was superseded by the Colonial Auxiliary Forces Officers' Decoration, for award to part-time commissioned officers of the Dominion of Canada and the British Colonies, Dependencies and Protectorates. On 17 August 1908, the Volunteer Officers' Decoration was superseded in the United Kingdom by the Territorial Decoration. Prior to the institution of this new decoration, a pair of distinctive Naval decorations had been instituted specifically to reward long and meritorious service by part-time officers of the Royal Naval Reserve, composed of Merchant Navy seamen, and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, composed of civilian volunteers. Institution The Decoration for Officers of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, often colloquially and even officially referred to as either the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Officers' Decoration or the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Decoration, was instituted before 17 August 1908 as a long service award for part-time officers of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserves of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, Colonies and India. It was one of a pair of decorations which were instituted