Italy - 2 Brevets - British Crimea medal &

[tjnier]

Attached are scans of two Italian brevets or certificates, issued to the same soldier. The first is the brevet authorizing the receipt of the British Crimea medal, dated 15 June 1856 at Turin. The soldier was Grenadier Francesco Morini of the 2nd Regiment of Sardinian Grenadiers. The second brevet authorizes him to have the French medal for the Italy 1859 campaign, dated 31 January 1861 at Milan. By then Morini had regimental number 3274, and was a "Tamburino" (some kind of musician??).

Both brevets were offered on eBay-USA in 1999, but did not sell. I obtained photocopies from the seller. Their size had to be reduced to fit on this posting, but you can see their general appearance if not the small print.

[JBFloyd]

Certainly unusual to see a pair of documents like this.

Tamburino = drummer

[Ulsterman]

Neat!

Oh I'd LOVE to see a photo of him @ 1880.

Can you imagine?...... Italian Unification medal, Italian Independence medal, Italian Long service, British Crimea, Turkish Crimea and French Italian campaign medal. Now, THAT would be a group to see.

[tjnier]

Ulsterman's wish can be partially granted. Attached are scans of a Bersagliere veteran of the Italian Independence Wars. He wears the black rooster feathers on his hat, a characteristic of this crack unit. He has an impressive medal rack, the top row consisting of: French medal for Italy 1859, a Silver Al Valore Militare, and an Independence medal with three bars. The bottom pair has the 1870 Liberation of Rome medal, and the King Umberto medal for United Italy.

The cabinet photo must have been taken after 1883, the institution date for the United Italy medal. It was taken in Turin by G. Locchi, and bears on its backside the veteran's name "Filippa Carlo / Via Principe Commador, No. 11". I believe the two bars on his right cuff indicate a Corporal's rank?? It's curious that the French campaign medal is ranked ahead of the Al Valore Militare.