Soon after the outbreak of the First World War, the Military Cross was instituted as a reward for junior army officers and warrant officers for gallantry in the field. It filled a gap that was particularly vacant in the British Army, which, other than the rarely awarded Victoria Cross, had no gallantry decoration to which a junior officer might aspire. Indian and Gurkha officers of the Indian Army were equally eligible for two other gallantry awards: the Indian Order for Merit and the Indian Distinguished Service Medal. In spite of this substantial difference between the two honours systems, eligibility for the M.C. encompassed officers serving with both British and Indian Armies and the Colonial Forces, irrespective of creed or ethnicity, and by the close of the Second World War more than 50,000 awards had been granted. Measured in terms of total M.C. recipients, the number of officers of Asian origin seems relatively modest