RARE PRE WW1 BRITISH ARMY TIBET EXPEDITION 1903 CAMPAIGN MEDAL WITH GYANTSE BAR

Description

Offered is an original 1903-04 Tibet Expedition Campaign Medal. 36mm wide circular bronze medal with affixed claw and ornate scroll swivel ribbon bar suspension, retaining the bar ‘GYANTSE’; the face with the head and shoulders of King Edward VII facing left in field marshal’s uniform, showing some staining to face, circumscribed ‘EDWARDUS VII KAISAR-I-HIND’ (Edward VII Emperor of India); the reverse with a view of the city of Lhasa, circumscribed below ‘TIBET 1903-4’; with sloped engraved naming to rim: Bearer Nabbi Bakhsh; on original ribbon.  

The medal was instituted in February 1905 and awarded to participants in the Tibet Mission and accompanying troops who served at or beyond Siliguri, North Bengal, between 13 December 1903 and 23 September 1904 in the punitive expedition that following Tibetan rejection of British attempts to gain political influence and trade links. Most examples were awarded to Indian forces, as this example shows.