The Admiralty issued the medal for several expeditions,[3] including the expedition to discover the fate of Sir John Franklin and his crew, who were lost while looking for the Northwest Passage in 1847: Her Majesty having been graciously pleased to signify her commands that a Medal be granted to all persons, of every rank and class, who have been engaged in the several Expeditions to the Arctic Regions, whether of discovery or search, between the years 1818 and 1855, both inclusive.

Since 1998, the criteria for being awarded a Polar Medal are:The period of service living and working in the arduous conditions of a Polar environment required to be considered for this Medal shall normally be not less than twelve months, shorter periods of service may be aggregated to meet this criterion.

The character Private Frazer in the BBC series Dad's Army was a recipient of the medal for his participation in Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition of 1904–1907.

In 1986, the London Gazette announced Ginny Fiennes as the first woman to be awarded the Polar Medal.

[8] The reverse of the original Arctic Medal showed a three-masted ship surrounded by ice floes.

A new design by Ernest Gillick was used from 1904, showing RRS Discovery, with a sledging party in the foreground.

Frank Wild and Ernest Joyce hold the joint record of four clasps on their Polar Medal.

Subsequently, a Canadian decoration intended to honour explorers of Canada's polar regions and defenders of the country's sovereignty in the north was initially conceived by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson as the Governor General's Northern Medal and created on 15 September 2005, to award those who serve with distinction in northern Canada.

The report on honours that recommended the change contained the inaccurate claim that the medal was named after the North Pole.