The Saint Helena Medal (or Médaille de Sainte-Hélène in French) is the first French campaign medal, established in 1857 by a decree of emperor Napoleon III. The medal recognizes participation in the campaigns led by emperor Napoleon I, creator of the Legion of Honour and various other orders (who never instituted commemorative campaign medals for his soldiers).
In time, many veterans of these campaigns, sometimes called the “débris de la Grande Armée” (“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. It would be forty two years after the exile of the emperor to the island of Saint Helena called for the need to adequately and officially recognize the service of these combat veterans.
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 inclusive. It was awarded with no condition of minimum time of service, however, it was necessary to prove one’s right with a record of service or leave record. The Saint Helena Medal could be revoked following a condemnation to a fixed prison term of one year or more for a crime committed by the recipient.
The medal 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 lid 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”).
The Saint Helena Medal Design
The Saint Helena Medal is of irregular (round) shape and struck in bronze. It measures 2 cm in diameter and its medallion is surrounded by a 50mm wide laurel wreath tied with a bow at the bottom.
Atop the medal there is a 2 cm wide Imperial Crown. The obverse bears 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 separates 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 bears the relief circular inscription within a narrow 20mm band “CAMPAGNES DE 1792 A 1815” (English: “CAMPAIGNS OF 1792 TO 1815”). In the centre, 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 hangs 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.
