Waterloo Medals

Britain issued its first medal, made of solid silver, for all ranks, for the Battle of Waterloo, as seen above.

A number of other countries issued their own Waterloo Medals and I show examples of each below

Prussia

Combatants received the round 1815 Medal, reputedly made from the captured brass French cannon, non- combatants received the oval version

prussia prussia2Prussia 1815 NonCombatant Medal

Hanover

The soldiers of Hanover received a Waterloo Medal; King’s German Legion troops (or at least some) received bot a British and a Hanoverian medal

hanoverian medal

Nassau

Nassau troops received this medal, as although many served in the Netherlands Army, they didn’t issue a Waterloo Medal until much later

Nassau medal 1 Nassau Medal 2

 

Brunswick

Again the Brunswick Medal was reputedly made out of captured French Brass cannon

Brunswick medal

Holland

The Dutch soldiers had to wait until 1865 before a medal was produced to celebrate the 50th anniversary. Mind you they were lucky, the Belgians never got one!

Dutch Cross

France

As you might suspect, no Waterloo medal was issued. But in 1857 the ‘St Helena’ Medal was issued to all who had served in Napoleon’s armies, nearly half a million were issued!

st-helena-medal-18571

Other countries issued Waterloo Medals but none of their troops actually served at the battle. I therefore discount them

About the author

Gareth Glover

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