Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Queen’s German Regiment Medal of Merit 1801, pewter, by Hancock, Kempson and Kindon, obverse, Sphinx with staff bearing British and French flags, ‘Egypt’ engraved above, ‘XXI March MDCCCI’ in exergue; reverse, ‘Queen’s German Regiment’ within a laurel wreath, ‘French Defeated’ engraved on the rim either side of the contemporary loop suspension, 47.8 mm (Balmer R579), very fine and very rare £500-£600

Provenance: Usher Collection, Glendining’s, July 1975; Dr A. B. King Collection, Morton and Eden, October 2003; Robert Gould Collection of Napoleonic War Medals, Dix Noonan Webb, June 2012.

Several regiments have borne the number ‘97’. The one for which the above medal was intended originated as a foreign corps, mainly comprising of German speaking Swiss mercenaries, known originally as Stuart’s Regiment, then as the Minorca Regiment and subsequently as the Queen’s German Regiment. It was brought into the line as the 97th Foot in 1801 after greatly distinguishing itself in Egypt under Abercromby. The medal itself was instituted to commemorate the recapture of the standard of Napoleon’s ‘Invincibles’ by Private Antoine Lutz at the battle of Aboukir in Egypt in 1801, after it had been lost by Sergeant Sinclair of the 42nd Foot. Lutz himself was permitted to wear a representation of the standard within a wreath of laurel on his right sleeve.

William Cobbett, in a report on the capture of the standard, quotes from the order establishing this award, ‘... as soon as the regiment is in an established quarter, he will institute a valuable badge, in a certain proportion per company, to be worn by such men as shall have been proved, upon sufficient testimony, to have distinguished themselves, by acts of valour, or by personal instances of meritorious service ...’

After Waterloo the regiment was renumbered as the 96th and was disbanded in 1818. In 1823/24 a new 96th Regiment was formed which inherited the old regiment’s Egyptian and Peninsula battle honours and which subsequently became the 2nd Battalion Manchester Regiment.