Turkish War Medal (1915) Accession Number: RELAWM16542

Description

Turkish War Medal (1915), in the form of a slightly convex, silver plated brass, five-pointed star with flattened ball finials. The star is enamelled red and has textured silver edges. In the centre is a silver plated crescent moon (horns uppermost) framing the sultan's toughra. Beneath the toughra is the Muslim date 1333, which equates to 1915 AD. There is a pin fitting on the back of the medal, which is stamped 'B.B & Co '.

Contextual Description

The Turkish War Medal was a decoration, in a single class, that was instituted on 1 March 1915 for bravery and war merit. It could be awarded to members of the army, navy, and nursing services of both Turkey and its allies. Although it is sometimes erroneously called the Gallipoli Star it had no special connection to this campaign and was awarded throughout the First World War. The decoration, as issued, was in base metal that was crudely enamelled or lacquered, and had a poor quality pin fastening on the back. Other, better quality examples of the War Medal, such as this one, were made, apparently in both Germany and Turkey, using silver plated metal and high quality enamel. They were slightly convex, instead of the flat issued examples, and had a more robust pin fastening. The existence of both types of medal led to the supposition that the poorer quality medal was for the ordinary soldier or sailor and that the silver plated version was for officers, or that the medal was issued in two classes. In fact they are variants of the same medal, although it is likely that it was mainly officers who were able to afford the higher quality version to replace the poorer quality medal originally issued to them. This medal was taken was taken from a Turkish officer on Gallipoli by an Australian soldier named Victor Brown. It is not possible to identify him further as more than one man of this name served in this campaign.