IDENTIFIERS ----------- id: 141503 accession number: CM.1409-2009 DATE AUDIT ---------- created: Saturday 6 August 2011 updated: Monday 15 January 2024 DESCRIPTIVE DATA ---------------- object type: After the failure of the Allies in the Great War of 1914-18 to take control of the Straits of Marmora in the disastrous Gallipolli campaign, French troops in the theatre were withdrawn to Thessalonika to form a new Armée d'Orient facing Austro-Hungarian inroads into Serbia. The campaign they fought there was nearly as hard as that they had left, and conditions similarly difficult. The French troops, sometimes aided by British divisions, were unable to prevent the Serbian army being effectively demolished by the Central Powers, and only in September 1918 was Austro-Hungarian control of the Balkans substantively challenged. A medal for service in the Dardanelles and in the subsequent Balkan campaigns was first suggested in 1917 but rejected, and only after other medals had been issued for the main theatres of war was its creation finally approved, in 1926. This medal was issued unnamed, and its recipient is therefore unknown. Whoever it was must have been unfortunately impoverished, as Lester Watson purchased the medal from the London dealers Baldwin in 1927, less than a year after its issue. title: Médaille Commémorative d'Orient NOTES ----- type: history note value: Gift of L. Hoyt Watson; ex Lester Watson Collection, bt Baldwin 1927 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/141503 TECHNIQUES ---------- struck CATEGORIES ------ category: medal DATING ------ creation date: 1926 - 1926 creation date earliest: 1926 creation date latest: 1926 CREATORS -------- maker: Paris maker: France maker: Lemaire, Georges maker: Colmar, Paris DIMENSIONS ---------- dimension: Diameter units: mm value: 29.7 dimension: Weight units: g value: 18.67 CITATIONS -------- 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_0292_281_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 127 pixels surrogate: mid format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0292_281_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 127 pixels surrogate: original format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0292_281_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 127 pixels surrogate: preview format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0292_281_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 127 pixels surrogate: large format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0292_282_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 131 pixels surrogate: mid format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0292_282_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 131 pixels surrogate: original format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0292_282_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 131 pixels surrogate: preview format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0292_282_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 131 pixels