IDENTIFIERS ----------- id: 141379 accession number: CM.1285-2009 DATE AUDIT ---------- created: Saturday 6 August 2011 updated: Monday 15 January 2024 DESCRIPTIVE DATA ---------------- object type: 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 twice 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 at some point before 1928. title: Indian Order of Merit, 2nd Class NOTES ----- type: history note value: Gift of L. Hoyt Watson; ex Lester Watson Collection, bt before 1928 LICENSING --------- text license status: CC0 image license status: CC-BY-NC-SA OWNERSHIP --------- instutition: The Fitzwilliam Museum department: Coins and Medals collection: Lester Watson Collection creditline: Given by Lester Watson through Cambridge in America, 2009 STABLE URL ---------- url: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/141379 TECHNIQUES ---------- struck CATEGORIES ------ category: medal DATING ------ creation date: 1837 - 1911 creation date earliest: 1837 creation date latest: 1911 CREATORS -------- maker: Calcutta maker: East India Company maker: United Kingdom DIMENSIONS ---------- dimension: Diameter units: mm value: 40.4 dimension: Weight units: g value: 42.93 EXHIBITIONS HISTORY ------------------- title: Imagery of War CITATIONS -------- Medal Yearbook 2001 British and other Campaign and Gallantry Medals From the Collection of Lester Watson (d. 1959) --- IMAGES surrogate: large format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0168_281_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 119 pixels surrogate: mid format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0168_281_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 119 pixels surrogate: original format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0168_281_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 119 pixels surrogate: preview format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0168_281_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 119 pixels surrogate: large format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0168_282_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 128 pixels surrogate: mid format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0168_282_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 128 pixels surrogate: original format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0168_282_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 128 pixels surrogate: preview format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0168_282_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 128 pixels