The Military General Service Medal 1793 - 1814

       The Military General Service Medal 1793 - 1814 commemorates the campaigns and battles of the British Army between 1801 and 1814. The medal could not be awarded without a bar and this medal set the pattern for future British general service medals. The bars mainly commemorate actions of the Peninsular War¹, but also include various campaigns across the globe such as the West Indies, Egypt, Java, United States of America, etc.

      Description:  Silver 36mm diameter, obverse the diademed head of Queen Victoria, with the legend VICTORIA REGINA 1848.² Reverse shows Queen Victoria standing on a plinth, crowning the Duke of Wellington with a laurel wreath. The inscription TO THE BRITISH ARMY is around the circumference and the dates 1793 - 1814 are in exergue.

     Naming: in impressed serif capitals³. This is a common style used on other medals of the issue period such as  the 1854 India general service medal (only certain bars) and the officially impressed Crimea medal.
     Bars; twenty nine were issued, multiple bars were manufactured in pairs or triples. (see the last image on the page for a six bar medal made up in two groups of three.)

Notes.
¹. The medal awarded to the French enemy forces is here
^2. Applications were invited from the surviving eligible veterans for the medal in 1847. This was 34 years after the last battle and 47 years after the first that the medal commemorates, and the next of kin of the dead (unless the veteran had lodged a a claim prior to his death) were not eligible to claim. Therefore the numbers issued were never going to be large. The medal was issued in 1848 to the eligible of 25,500+ men who had made a claim.
^3. This is the one and only style for this medal.

(Also see: Medals of the Regiments for qualification by regiment for Infantry and Cavalry units.)

Twenty Nine Bars Issued;

Egypt,  Maida,  Roleia,  Vimiera,  Sahagun,  Benevente,  Sahagun and Benevente,  Corunna,  Martinique,  Talavera,  Guadaloupe,  Busaco,  Barrosa,  Fuentes D'Onor,  Albuhera,  Java,  Ciudad Rodrigo,  Badajoz,  Salamanca,  Fort Detroit,  Chateauguay,  Chrystler's Farm,  Vittoria,  Pyrenees,  St Sebastian,  Nivelle, Nive,  Orthes,  Toulouse.