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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, in the wake of 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 was dispatched to expel them. He was 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 men who had taken part.
The medal is unnamed, so we do not know who the recipient of this example was. Lester Watson purchased the medal from the dealer Gifford in 1927.
History note: Gift of L. Hoyt Watson; ex Lester Watson Collection, bt Gifford 1927.
Given by Lester Watson through Cambridge in America, 2009
Diameter: 49 mm
Weight: 47.26 g
Method of acquisition: Given (2009) by Watson, Lester
Production date: AD 1801
Fine die
Inscription present: Sepoy with flagstaff flying Union Jack before encampment
Inscription present: Ship under full sail right before Pyramids
Accession number: CM.1217-2009
Primary reference Number: 141311
Watson Catalogue: 111
Ordering: M-0100
Previous object number: LW.0100
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/141311 Accessed: 2024-12-22 20:25:35
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/141311
|title=Honourable East India Company's Egypt Medal
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-22 20:25:35|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-141311
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_0100_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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