IDENTIFIERS ----------- id: 141551 accession number: CM.1457-2009 DATE AUDIT ---------- created: Saturday 6 August 2011 updated: Saturday 22 January 2022 DESCRIPTIVE DATA ---------------- object type: The city of Kars, in north-eastern Turkey, was a possession of the Ottoman Empire between 1378 and 1877, but over the course of the nineteenth century an exposed and strategic position made it a frequent target of Russian attacks. Defended successfully in 1821, it fell in 1828, but was recovered in time to be a target anew in the Crimean War. The Russians, who were in a dangerous position at the siege of Sebastopol, decided as almost the last gasp of the war to open a new front directly attacking the Ottoman Empire. Kars stood in their path, and withstood a five-month siege. Turkish reinforcements were sent but were used to skirmish with the Russian forces; facing winter without resupply, and with snowfall preventing their relief, the garrison surrendered on 26 November 1855. In the negotiations that ended the Crimean War Kars was transferred to Russia, although it would be recovered for good in 1918. No dishonour was attached to the 1855 surrender by Sultan Abdúlmecid, and those who had assisted in the city's defence were awarded this commemorative medal. As the garrison had been under British command, and had numbered a few British troops, not all the recipients were Ottoman soldiers, but the great majority were; nearly twenty thousand were issued to Turkish forces and the issues to Turks and non-Turks are not distinct in any way. It cannot therefore be told to whom this example of the medal was awarded and in what force he served. Although this medal has become part of the Watson Collection, moreover, it is not in Lester Watson's own lists and there is no information about how he may have acquired it. title: Medal for the Defence of Kars NOTES ----- type: history note value: Gift of L. Hoyt Watson; no provenance. 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/141551 TECHNIQUES ---------- struck CATEGORIES ------ category: medal DATING ------ creation date: 1855 - 1855 creation date earliest: 1855 creation date latest: 1855 CREATORS -------- maker: ‘Abd al-Majid (1823-61) maker: Ottoman Empire DIMENSIONS ---------- dimension: Diameter units: mm value: 36.7 dimension: Weight units: g value: 24.6 CITATIONS -------- British Battles and Medals 7th edn 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_0340_281_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 133 pixels surrogate: mid format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0340_281_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 133 pixels surrogate: original format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0340_281_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 133 pixels surrogate: preview format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0340_281_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 133 pixels surrogate: large format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0340_282_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 131 pixels surrogate: mid format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0340_282_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 131 pixels surrogate: original format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0340_282_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 131 pixels surrogate: preview format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0340_282_29.jpg height: 365 pixels width: 131 pixels