Saint Helena Medal
| Saint Helena Medal | |
|---|---|
Obverse and reverse of the medal | |
| Type | Campaign medal |
| Awarded for | Military service for France from 1792 to 1815 |
| Presented by | Second French Empire |
| Eligibility | French and foreign soldiers |
| Campaign(s) | French Revolutionary Wars, Napoleonic Wars |
| Status | No longer awarded |
| Established | 12 August 1857 |
| Final award | 1870 |
| Total | ~305,000 to Frenchmen ~55,000 to foreigners |
Ribbon bar of the medal | |
| Precedence | |
| Next (higher) | Medal of the Nation's Gratitude |
| Next (lower) | Commemorative medal of the 1859 Italian Campaign |
The Saint Helena Medal (French: Médaille de Sainte-Hélène) was the first French campaign medal. It was established in 1857 by a decree of emperor Napoleon III to recognise participation in the campaigns led by emperor Napoleon I.
Emperor Napoléon I, creator of the Order of the Legion of Honour and various other orders, never instituted commemorative campaign medals for his soldiers. In time, many veterans of these campaigns, sometimes called the "débris de la Grande Armée" (English: "remnants of the Great Army"), began meeting within various new veterans' associations. Keeping alive their war memories and the myth of Napoléon in popular culture, they issued many unofficial commemorative and associative medals.
It would be forty two years after the last battles and exile of the emperor to the island of Saint Helena before the need to adequately and officially recognise the service of these combat veterans was eventually recognised officially by an imperial decree of Emperor Napoléon III creating, on 12 August 1857, the Saint Helena Medal.According to Fondation Napoléon 450,000 old soldiers were recorded as being alive, in the 1850s.