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Mint:
Calcutta
Issuer:
East India Company
Ruler:
George III (1760-1820)
(Struck in the rule of)
General Napoleon Bonaparte, in 1798 not yet in power in France, conceived the idea of attacking Egypt to cut Britain off from India and was sent to do so at least partly so as to remove him from turbulent Paris. However, facing a triumphant naval victory by Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson at Aboukir Bay, and a general lack of strategic success despite several crushing victories over Egyptian and Ottoman forces, Bonaparte returned to France in 1799 to take power by coup. French troops remained in the country until 1801, however, when a force under Sir Ralph Abercromby were dispatched to expel them. They were aided in this by a contingent supplied by the Honourable East India Company, and in 1802 the Company approved the issue of this medal for the troops who had taken part.
The medal appears not to have finally been issued until 1811, and then unnamed, so we do not know who the recipient of this example was. Lester Watson acquired the medal at some point before 1928.
History note: Gift of L. Hoyt Watson; ex Lester Watson Collection, acquired before 1928
Given by Lester Watson through Cambridge in America, 2009
Diameter: 50.8 mm
Weight: 55.85 g
Method of acquisition: Given (2009) by Watson, Lester
Production date: AD 1801
Later die, cracked
Inscription present: Sepoy with flagstaff flying Union Jack before encampment
Inscription present: Ship under full sail right before Pyramids
Accession number: CM.1216-2009
Primary reference Number: 141310
Watson Catalogue: 110
Ordering: M-0099
Previous object number: LW.0099
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Coins and Medals
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Honourable East India Company's Egypt Medal" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/141310 Accessed: 2024-12-31 19:00:25
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/141310
|title=Honourable East India Company's Egypt Medal
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-31 19:00:25|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:
https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-141310
To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:
<div class="text-center">
<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0099_281_29.jpg"
alt="Honourable East India Company's Egypt Medal"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Honourable East India Company's Egypt Medal</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
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