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Mint:
Calcutta
Issuer:
East India Company
State:
United Kingdom
The Indian Order of Merit, instituted by the Honourable East India Company in 1837, is the oldest award for gallantry of the British Empire. The Order had three classes until 1912, for which medals were awarded in silver, silver and gold and gold respectively, and promotion from one class to a higher was achieved by further acts of bravery.
The receipient of this medal must therefore have been awarded the Order's medal three times at some point between 1837 and 1912, when Indian troops were made eligible for the Victoria Cross thus displacing the original first class, but as the medals were issued unnamed, we do not know who the recipient was. Lester Watson purchased the medal from the London dealers Baldwin in 1927.
History note: Gift of L. Hoyt Watson; ex Lester Watson Collection, bt Baldwin 1927
Given by Lester Watson through Cambridge in America, 2009
Diameter: 40.6 mm
Weight: 50.93 g
Method of acquisition: Given (2009) by Watson, Lester
1837 - 1911
Inscription present: Blue boss with crossed swords in circle with lettering around, all in gilt; wreath around and eight star points
Inscription present: Eight-pointed star, plain save inscription
Accession number: CM.1284-2009
Primary reference Number: 141378
Watson Catalogue: 186
Ordering: M-0167
Previous object number: LW.0167
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:
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IIIF Manifest
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Indian Order of Merit, 1st Class" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/141378 Accessed: 2024-11-09 00:01:02
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/141378
|title=Indian Order of Merit, 1st Class
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-09 00:01:02|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-141378
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/cm57/CM_1284_2009_1_201706_sjc288_dc2.jpg"
alt="Indian Order of Merit, 1st Class"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Indian Order of Merit, 1st Class</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
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