Original British Burmese Resistance Movement Rim Impressed India General Service Medal (1854) With Burma 1885-7 Clasp For C.J. White, HMS Bacchante Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. The India General Service Medal (1854 IGSM) was a campaign medal approved on 1 March 1854, for issue to officers and men of the British and Indian armies. It was awarded for various minor military campaigns in India and nearby countries, between 1852 and 1895.

In 1852 Lord Dalhousie had suggested a general service medal for smaller Indian campaigns, in order to limit the number of individual medals awarded.

Indian Army units made up the majority of forces present for nearly all campaigns. While the expeditions covered by the medal included few formal battles, most were undertaken in difficult terrain against determined resistance from local tribesmen.

In 1895, the India Medal was authorized to reflect service in further Indian expeditions, replacing the 1854 General Service Medal.

The medal is 1.4 inches (36 mm) in diameter, and was struck at the Royal Mint.
It was initially awarded only in silver. From the Burma 1885–87 clasp, medals in bronze were awarded to authorized native followers who accompanied the troops, such as bearers, sweepers and drivers.

The obverse bears a left-facing effigy of Queen Victoria wearing a diadem. Surrounding the head is the inscription VICTORIA REGINA.

The reverse depicts Victory crowning a seated warrior with a laurel wreath. In the exergue are lotus flowers and leaves.

It was always issued with the recipient’s rank, name and unit engraved or impressed on the rim. This example is impressed rather than engraved with the following:

C.J. WHITE LDG. SEAMAN. H.M.S. BACCHANTE

The medal is suspended by a scrolled bar.

The 1.25 inches (32 mm) wide ribbon is divided into five stripes, three red (faded to orange) and two dark blue, each 0.25 inches (6.4 mm) wide.

A lovely medal that comes more than ready for further research and display.

HMS Bacchante (1876)
HMS Bacchante was a Bacchante-class ironclad screw-propelled corvette of the Royal Navy. She is particularly famous for being the ship on which the Princes George and Albert served as midshipmen.

Bacchante was built at Portsmouth Dockyard and launched on 19 October 1876, the second ship of the three ship Bacchante class. She was armed with fourteen 7-inch (177.8 mm) muzzle-loading rifle guns and two 64-pounder torpedo carriages, and rated at 4070 tons.

The two oldest sons of the Prince of Wales had entered the navy in 1877, and by 1879 it had been decided by the Royal Family and the Government that the two should undertake a cruise. They were assigned to Bacchante, which was then part of a squadron intended to patrol the sea lanes of the British Empire. Queen Victoria was concerned that the Bacchante might sink, drowning her grandchildren. Confident in their ship, the Admiralty sent Bacchante through a gale to prove she was sturdy enough to weather storms. The Princes, with their tutor John Neale Dalton, duly came aboard on 17 September 1879. The Bacchante was to be their home for the next three years.

They made a number of cruises to different parts of the Empire with the squadron. Serving aboard the squadron’s flagship, HMS Inconstant at this time was their relation, Prince Louis of Battenberg. The squadron initially consisted of HMS Inconstant, Bacchante, Diamond and Topaze, the composition altering during the voyages as ships left, or were joined by new ones. Bacchante visited the Mediterranean and the West Indies, followed by later voyages to South America, South Africa, Australia, China and Japan. The Princes made regular diary entries, which were later published as two volumes in 1886 as The Cruise of Her Majesty’s Ship Bacchante. Photographs from the trip were later donated by Rev. Dalton, their royal tutor, and are now part of the Royal Collection Trust.

Of note during this time, the Bacchante briefly assisted in the First Boer War, before the squadron sailed again for Australia. Shortly after reaching the coast on 12 May, a heavy storm blew up and when it had abated, Bacchante was missing. After three days searching, news reached the squadron that Bacchante had had her rudder disabled, but had been able to reach safety at Albany.