Description
Defence of the Legations at Addis Ababa 1936, extremely rare and large 52mm silver medal, awarded to “Bearer Sher Bahadur”.
Reverse of the medal, “PRESENTATION TO THE BRITISH LEGATION GUARD BY THE BRITISH COMMUNITIES AT ADDIS ABABA TO COMMEMORATE SERVICES RENDERED 2ND TO 6TH MAY 1936.”
For their gallant services in this turbulent period all of the Legation Guard were presented this medal, only approximately 140 were presented in total.
In the face of overwhelming odds, armed mobs roaming the streets of the Ethiopian Capital looting, rioting, sacking the palace, shooting & plundering anything within reach with the “March of the Iron Will” ongoing, a ludicrous display of fascist propaganda by the Italian Army under the command of Marshal Badoglio, headed 12,500 Italian troops with 4,000 Eritreans, equipped with 1,785 cars and trucks of all makes, with a squadron of Light Tanks, eleven batteries of artillery and aircraft. Special vehicles even carried 193 horses so that when the column arrived at the gates of Addis Ababa, the Marshal could then leave his car and ride in triumph on horseback.
In the British Legation at Addis Ababa stood Major Charter, with two other British Officers and only his small band of Sikhs, of the Sikh Company, 5th Battalion
