Type Campaign medal Established 12 August 1857 | Campaign(s) Napoleonic Wars | |
 | ||
Eligibility French and foreign soldiers Awarded for Military service during the 1792 to 1815 Napoleonic campaigns Total awarded ~305,000 to Frenchmen
~55,000 to foreigners | ||
The Saint Helena Medal (French: Médaille de Sainte-Hélène) was the first French campaign medal. It was established in 1857 by a decree of emperor Napoleon III to recognize participation in the campaigns led by emperor Napoleon I.
Contents
Emperor Napoleon I, creator of the Legion of honour and various other orders, never instituted commemorative campaign medals for his brave soldiers. In time, many veterans of these campaigns, sometimes called the "débris de la Grande Armée" (English: "remnants of the Great Army"), began meeting within various new veterans' associations, keeping alive their war memories and the myth of Napoleon in popular culture, they issued many unofficial commemorative and associative medals.
The need to adequately and officially recognize the service of these combat veterans was real, but it would be forty two years after the last battles and exile of the emperor to the island of Saint Helena before an imperial decree of emperor Napoleon III would create, on 12 August 1857, the Saint Helena Medal.
Award statute
The Saint Helena Medal was awarded to all French and foreign soldiers, from the land armies or naval fleets, who served the Republic or the Empire between the years 1792 and 1815.
The medal was awarded with no condition of minimum time of service or participation in a particular military campaign, it was however necessary to prove ones right to the medal with a record of service or leave record.
A later decree of 16 April 1864 added the Saint Helena Medal to the list of awards that could be revoked following a condemnation to a fixed prison term of one year or more for a crime committed by the recipient.
It was accompanied by an award certificate from the Grand Chancery of the Legion of honour and came in a white cardboard box with intricate ornamentation on the cover in the form of an embossed imperial eagle over the inscription on seven lines "AUX COMPAGNONS DE GLOIRE DE NAPOLÉON I DÉCRET IMPÉRIAL DU 12 AOÛT 1857" (English: "TO NAPOLEON I COMPANIONS IN GLORY IMPERIAL DECREE OF 12 AUGUST 1857").
Award description
The Saint Helena Medal was of irregular shape and struck from bronze. It was a 2 cm in diameter circular medallion surrounded by a 50mm wide laurel wreath tied with a bow at the bottom. Atop the medal, a 2 cm wide Imperial Crown. The obverse of the medallion bore the relief image of the right profile of Emperor Napoleon I surrounded by the relief inscription "NAPOLEON I EMPEREUR" (English: "NAPOLEON I EMPEROR"). A ring or small orbs separated the central medallion from the wreath. Just below the image of the emperor, a small anchor, the privy mark of the award's designer, Désiré-Albert Barre.
The reverse is identical except for the medallion which bore the relief circular inscription within a narrow 20mm band "CAMPAGNES DE 1792 A 1815" (English: "CAMPAIGNS OF 1792 TO 1815"). In the center, the relief inscription on nine lines "A" "SES" "COMPAGNONS" "DE GLOIRE" "SA DERNIÈRE" "PENSÉE" "STE HÉLÈNE" "5 MAI" "1821" (English: "TO HIS COMPANIONS IN GLORY HIS LAST THOUGHT ST HELENA 5 MAY 1821").
The medal hung from a 38mm wide green silk moiré ribbon bearing five 1,8mm wide red vertical stripes spaced 4,5mm apart and 1mm red edge stripes. The ribbon passed through a suspension ring itself passing through a lateral hole in the imperial crown's orb atop the medal.