1897 Golden Jubilee Medal to a Colonial soldier

[Brett Hendey]

On the British & Colonial Police Forces forum, Mervyn has posted an extremely rare Diamond Jubilee Pass issued to a policeman. By way of contrast, he mentioned that Jubilee medals awarded to policemen are not uncommon. Much less common are Jubilee medals awarded to the Colonial soldiers who took part in the Jubilee procession and the Bisley competition that took place as part of the Jubilee celebrations.

Shown here is one such medal, which was awarded to Corporal I Poss of the Colony of Natal's Border Mounted Rifles, who was one of 17 men in the Natal Cavalry contingent in the Jubilee procession. Also shown is a photograph of a Natal Carbineer, who was a member of Natal's Bisley team. He is wearing his Jubilee medal on the right of his group, ahead of two campaign medals and a long service medal. Later, the order of wear of Jubilee and Coronation medals was changed and they now follow campaign medals.

[Brett Hendey]

Shown here is a list of the men who represented Natal at Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations, together with a sketch of the Natal Cavalry contingent in the Jubilee procession. The sketch is from an 'Illustrated Programme of the Royal Jubilee Procession'.

[Brett Hendey]

Here is another page from the 'Illustrated Programme of the Royal Jubilee Procession', this one showing the position of the Natal contingent in the procession.

[Mervyn Mitton]

Hi - Brett. I hope you have a good 2012.

Two very interesting items - the medal with it's linked history is particularly nice. I have seen these orders of procession before - but not for this Jubilee.

A very nice set and thankyou for sharing.

[peter monahan]

Presumably, as a 'gift from the sovreign, the Jubilee Medal took precedence over almost anything else originally. However, I suspect the soldiers so honoured had a different view of the matter! I once owned a group to a senior Indian cavalry officer: a Punjabi Muslim who was a demon polo player and apparently a spy. He finished the war with the honourific "Al Haji", for having make the haj [pilgrimage] to Mecca, from Mesopotamia, with a British officer, at a time when Mecca would have been behind enemy lines. The official explnation was that the two were 'on a diplomatic mission'.

Anyway, he was awarded the Royal Victorian Medal, which was pretty clearly an honour from the Queen Empress, but a 1920s photo shows him wearing it after his campaign and Jubilee medals, right at the end of a rack of ten! Again, presumably his estimation of its value and one which few people would have had the seniority, or perhaps inclination, to order changed.

[Brett Hendey]

Mervyn & Peter

Many thanks for your comments and I take this opportunity of wishing you both a happy and healthy 2012.

Regards

Brett