Lt Gen Sir John Lorimer, the former Chief of Joint Operations, called on the Government to award medals to soldiers in light of the severity of the operation. 

He said: “The Kabul evacuation was an extraordinary, no notice, joint multinational operation, involving many parts of the UK Armed Forces. It was strategically sensitive and operationally complex.”

Sir John said that the performance and conduct of soldiers on the ground “was incredible, in horrendous and dangerous circumstances”, adding that from what he had seen “medallic recognition is entirely appropriate”.

On Tuesday night, the Ministry of Defence told The Telegraph it would consider a change but cautioned this would be a “lengthy consideration”. 

An MoD spokesman added that medals or awards for “individual acts of bravery or leadership” would also be considered for the operation on a citation-by-citation basis as they are “separate to the length of deployment criteria”. 

Soldiers who have since returned from Kabul expressed frustration with the 30-day time period.

“I only care about the young lads that don’t have anything, and it’s them that worked the hardest, they deserve something to show for it,” a soldier who served in Operation Pitting said.

Another soldier said it was “hypocritical” to focus medals on a time period and questioned how it was fair “one-month peacekeeping tours” had medallic recognition but rescuing civilians from the Taliban, coupled with the constant threat of Isis-K, did not. 

Military sources said discussions were underway about adding a clasp with the words “Kabul Evacuation” to the current Afghanistan medal, while younger soldiers who had not previously served there would be awarded the medal in its entirety with the new clasp.

However, soldiers claimed a “bespoke medal” would be “more appropriate” and could set a precedent for “humanitarian operations being viewed differently from normal operational service”.