VINTAGE WW1 ERA FRENCH VOLUNTEERS COMBATTANTS SERVICE MILITARY CROSS MEDAL

Offered is an original WW1 era French Volunteer’s Combattants Cross. 37mm wide ronze cross pattée with laterally-pierced loop for ribbon suspension; the face with an upright sword on which is imposed a circular central medallion with the head of a soldier facing left wearing a laurel-crowned helmet within a ring inscribed ‘REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE’, the arms of the cross decorated with laurel and oak leaves; the reverse with a central circular medallion decorated with laurel leaves within a ring inscribed ‘COMBATTANT VOLONTAIRE’ and dated ‘1914-1918’; on original ribbon. The Cross was established on 4 July 1935 to reward French and foreign volunteers who served at the front during the Great War.