The Dekoratie voor Trouwe Dienst, post-nominal letters DTD, is a South African military decoration.

[1][2][3][4][5][6] The Dekoratie voor Trouwe Dienst (Decoration for Devoted Service), post-nominal letters DTD, was instituted in terms of Government Notice no.

[1][2][5][6][7] Since neither of the two Boer Republics, the South African Republic (Transvaal) and the Orange Free State, had official honours systems of their own, the decoration was created to afford Boer veteran officers who were serving as members of the Union Defence Forces parity with their fellow South Africans who had fought on the British side in the war.

[1][3][4][5] During the Second Boer War, Republican commanders were instructed to record the names of members of their forces who distinguished themselves in the field.

The names were to be sent to the War Council for confirmation and publication in the Staats Courant (Government Gazette) with the intention to award a medal after conclusion of hostilities.

[1][5] The gazetted regulations, in effect, actually excluded many men who had fought on the Boer side, such as the members of the various foreign units and potentially also the Natal and Cape rebels.

The position of the Dekoratie voor Trouwe Dienst in the official order of wear remained unchanged in April 1996, when decorations and medals were belatedly instituted for the two former non-statutory forces, the Azanian People's Liberation Army and Umkhonto we Sizwe, and again upon the institution of a new set of awards on 27 April 2003.