Medal for Glory (General Service Medal) 1831 (Ottoman Empire), issued in 1854Image["Turkish General Service Medal, 1854"]
Obverse, Sultan Abdúlmecid's cipher in a disc at the low centre, with spears and leaves above a flanking six-pointed star and a crescent moon left and rightImage["Turkish General Service Medal, 1854"]
Reverse, a six-pointed star in the centre of a twelve-pointed star, above a banner with a Turkish inscription, foliate ornament below
Medal for Glory 1831 (Ottoman Empire), 1854
The Ottoman Sultan Abdul Mejid I, once committed to the
Crimean alliance, was eager to foster close cooperation between his forces and those of his allies; Turkish troops sometimes operated under British or French command, and British or French troops with Turkish units.
This co-operation was symbolised by the issue of Turkish military medals to troops of the allied nations. The Medal for Glory, effectively a General Service award, had been instituted in 1831, but in 1854 a special issue was struck and presented by the Sultan at his palace to a limited number of British officers and men who had been conspicuous in the fighting.
It is not known to which of those recipients this medal was awarded, as it is unnamed. Lester Watson bought it from the dealer Lowe at some point before 1928.