[8] [1][5][9] An airman became eligible for the award of the medal upon completion of eighteen (later fifteen) years of reckonable service from the date of attestation or age 17½, whichever was later.

Prior to 1945 the medal could be awarded for distinguished service in wartime or emergency, without the time served or good conduct requirement having to be fulfilled.

[1][5] From 1944 a clasp to the medal could be awarded for additional periods of eighteen (later fifteen) years of good service.

Also from that date, an officer became eligible for the award of the clasp if at least twenty-two of the thirty years of his or her service had been in the ranks and provided that the conduct requirements had been met.

[1][10][12] The reverse of the medal remained unchanged through all versions of the obverse and bears the Royal Air Force eagle with outstretched wings, surmounted by the crown and with the inscription "FOR LONG SERVICE AND GOOD CONDUCT" around the circumference.

The initials "BM" on the truncation of the King's neck are those of the designer of the obverse, Bertram Mackennal, an Australian sculptor.

[6] A second King George VI version, inscribed "GEORGIVS VI D: G: BRITT: OMN: REX FID: DEF:" around the perimeter, appeared c. 1948 following the granting of independence to India, when the King's official title changed from "Monarch of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India" to "Monarch of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Monarch of India".

The medal shows a bareheaded effigy of the Queen, facing right and wearing a laurel crown, and is inscribed "ELIZABETH•II•DEI•GRATIA•REGINA•F:D:", reading around from a cross at the top.

The effigy was designed by Mary Gillick and was also used on general-circulation coinage for the United Kingdom from 1953, as well as in cameo form on British commemorative postage stamps since 1966.

The Royal Air Force Long Service and Good Conduct Medal ceased to be awarded to members of the Royal Australian Air Force in 1975, when it was replaced by the National Medal (Australia) in the Australian system of honours and awards.

[20] The Royal Canadian Air Force Long Service and Good Conduct Medal was instituted on 1 August 1944.

[26] In September 2016, it was formally announced in Defence Instruction 2016DIN09-023, that plans for a new medal had been shelved and the current RAF LS&GC would continue with revised regulations, that all RAF Officers will become eligible for its award effective from 1 October 2016 with the eligibility being backdated to 29 July 2014 (published in Chapter 5 to JSP761 (Honours and Awards in the Armed Forces) and Queen's Regulations of the Royal Air Force.