Joseph Finney
1863 – 1915
Service number 5013.
Colour Sergeant in Prince Consorts Own Rifle Brigade
Medals awarded to him are:
Distinguished
Conduct Medal,
Indian General service Medal 1854,
Kings South African Medal,
Long Service and Good Conduct Medal,
Khedives Star.
From various memorabilia held by the
family we have discovered that he was in
Examples of Joseph Finney Medals
the originals being in the
Royal Green Jackets Regimental Museum
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Distinguished
Conduct Medal
The need for a gallantry medal for
other ranks was first recognised during the Crimean War, although previously
the Meritorious Service Medal (qv) had very occasionally been awarded for
gallantry in the field. Since 1916 the
DCM has ranked as a superior decoration to the Military Medal - It was thus the
second highest award for gallantry in action (after the Victoria Cross) for all
army ranks below commissioned officers and was available to navy and air force
personnel also for distinguished conduct in the field. As a result of the 1993 Review of gallantry
awards and resultant changes to the operational gallantry award system, the
decoration has been replaced by the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross.
A silver, laurelled bar was awarded for a subsequent act or acts of
distinguished conduct in the field.
Prior to 1916 these were plain dated bars.
Kings
South Africa Medal
This
medal was never issued alone - always with the Queen's South Africa Medal. It was awarded to all personnel engaged in operations
in South Africa in 1901 - 02 when fighting was confined to numerous skirmishes
with isolated guerrilla bands. Very few
of these medals were awarded to RN personnel as the naval brigades had been
disbanded in 1901. Apart from 600 nurses
and a few odd men who received the medal without a clasp, it was awarded with
both clasps - single clasp awards are very unusual.
Egypt Medal
Mehemit Ali, Khedive of Egypt, notorious for his women,
gambling and what the literature of the period guardedly calls "unnatural
appetites" was obliged to sell his Suez Canal shares to Great Britain.
Shortly afterwards he was replaced by his son Tewfik who had
inherited all his father's vices and invented some of his own. The state of the country worsened and in 1882
the army, which had not been paid or clothed for several years, mutinied under
Arabi Pasha. Arabi threatened to seize
the Suez Canal and began to strengthen the forts guarding Alexandria. On the 11th July 1882 after an ultimatum the
British fleet bombarded the fortifications and landed seamen and marines to
restore order.
Britain was now committed to restore law and order, and an
attack was made on the rebel army who had entrenched themselves at
Tel-el-Kebir. Guided by naval officers
with compasses the British force made a night march across the desert and
routed the enemy. An occupational force
of 10,000 men was left in Egypt, and a General Order of 1882 granted a medal
with appropriate bars to those engaged in the two battles.
Britain now found herself responsible for a country without
revenue, an army or administration, At this awkward moment in time there
appeared in the Sudan, nominally ruled by Egypt, the Mahdi or "Expected
One", a religious fanatic whose puritanical control over his dervishes
would have made Cromwell green with envy.
To suppress the rebellion an Egyptian army of some 10,000 led by Hicks
Pasha marched out against the dervishes. Although the force looked impressive
on paper, many of the men had been released from prison following their part in
the 1882 mutiny and 51 men of the Rupp battery managed to desert en route
although chained to their guns. The result was a foregone conclusion and at the
beginning of November the army was slaughtered and all their guns and nearly a
million rounds of ammunition fell into the hands of the Mahdi. After a series
of further engagements the British Government decided to withdraw from the
Sudan. "Chinese" Gordon was appointed to undertake the evacuation of
garrisons and civil staff, but by the end of 1884 Gordon was besieged in
Khartoum. The relief column fought its way up the Nile, only to arrive
forty-eight hours too late to prevent the fall of the city and Gordon's murder.
During the course of the next five years, eleven more clasps were authorised for
the Egypt medal and the medal itself was re-issued in 1884 but with a plain
exergue.
The obverse of the medal is similar to that for Ashantee. The
first reverse shows a simple design of the Sphinx with the word EGYPT above and
the date 1882 below. The ribbon has three bright blue and two white stripes of
equal width. Dated medals are engraved in sloping capitals, as are the second
issue to British troops. Undated medals issued to Indian troops are engraved in
small running script and those awarded to the Egyptian army are named in
Arabic.
The
Khedive's Star.
These five-pointed, all
bronze stars were awarded to those who also received the Egypt Medal of
1882-89. Produced in Birmingham, England, by Messrs. Henry Jenkins and Sons,
the medal was struck on order of the Khedive Tewfik Mahommed.
The Star dated
"1882" for the campaign between 16 July and 14 September 1882.
The Star dated
"1884" for the campaign between 19 February and 26 March 1884.
Indian
General Service Medal
On December 22, 1853, this medal was
authorized for Her Majesty's--as well as the East Indies Company's--land and
sea forces engaged in the Burma War of 1852-1853. Subsequent to its
authorization, this medal was also issued in commemoration of a number of
engagements that took place on the Indian frontier, as well as the expedition
to the Malay Peninsula.
The "BURMA
1887-1889" clasp (May 1, 1887-March 31, 1889) was authorized for survivors
of expeditions that had been conducted to suppress large-scale banditry.
The Army Long
Service & Good Conduct medal
was instituted in 1830. The medal is made from silver and is
36 millimetres in diameter. The medal's ribbon was plain crimson until 1917
when white stripes were added to both edges. As can be imaged, a medal
introduced in 1830 has undergone a number of changes. Until 1901 the medal's
obverse contained an image of a trophy of arms with the royal arms in an oval
shield in the centre while the reverse side contained the inscription "For
Long Service and Good Conduct.”
The King William IV issue had the
royal coat of arms with the badge of Hanover on the obverse and a small
suspension ring with a plain crimson ribbon. The small ring was replaced by a
larger version in 1831.When Queen Victoria succeeded to the throne in 1837; the
Hanover emblem was dropped from the medal's obverse. In 1855 a swivelling
scroll suspension was introduced, followed in 1874 by small lettering replacing
the original large lettering on the reverse side.
In 1901, with the succession of King
Edward VI to the throne, the effigy of the reigning sovereign was placed on the
medal's obverse. The reverse side remained unchanged.
In 1920 the swivelling scroll
suspension was replaced by a fixed suspender.
In 1930 the title of the medals was
changed to the Long Service and Good Conduct (Military) Medal. It was also
decided to add a fixed suspension bar bearing the text "Regular Army"
or the name of a dominion country: Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, or
South Africa.
The medal was originally awarded to
soldiers of good conduct who had completed 21 years service in the infantry or
24 years in the cavalry. In 1870, this qualifying period was reduced to 18
years for both the infantry and cavalry. During the Second World War, officers
could also be awarded this medal if they had completed at least 12 of the 18
years in the ranks. In 1940 clasps for further periods of service were
introduced.
The vast majority of LS&GC
medals are issued named to the recipient, with the name on the rim around the
medal.
Shanghai Volunteer Corps
Juncta in uno omnia – all
joined in one. Motto of the Shanghai
Municipal Council
Shanghai
declared open to foreign trade
1863
Agreement to combine American and British Settlements and council set up.
Council
consisted of elected representatives of the qualified foreign ratepayers.
Functioned
until December 1941 when
Separate
municipality abolished in January 1943 but was effectively ended in early 1942
when nationals of belligerent countries were interned by the Japanese.
The Municipal Seal at present in use was designed by Mr
Oliver, the then Municipal ![[ Flag of the Shanghai International Settlement's Municipal Council ]](Joseph%20Finney_files/image020.gif)
Engineer, was approved by the
Council in December, 1868 and brought into use in April, 1869.
At that time 11 countries had treaties with
China. These, in the order of the dates of their treaties, are as follows:
Russia, Great Britain, America, France, Belgium, Sweden and Norway, Germany
(i.e. Prussia), Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, Italy.
With the exeeption of Belgium the flags of
all these countries are included, whereas Austria and Portugal are represented,
although they apparently had no treaties.
The flags represented are as follows:
Top left hand shield: Great Britain,
America, France, Germany.
Top right hand shield: Russia, Denmark,
Italy, Portugal.
Lower Shield: Norway and Sweden, Austria,
Spain, Holland.
Countries having treaties with China but
whose flags are not represented on the shield are: Belgium, Japan, Cuba,
Brazil.
There is a considerable amount of
contortion of the flags although this is apparently unavoidable. This can only
be detected by noting from which side each flag is supposed to be hung. The
system adopted has been that, looking from the centre, the flag pole is
supposed to be on the left of the flag.
An adjunct to the Shanghai
Municipal Council was the Shanghai Volunteer Corps. The SVC was established in 1854 by agreement
among the American, British and French trade delegations and consuls residing
in the city. The resultant international defence organisation acted as a
municipal militia for the international community in Shanghai and eventually
represented at least 20 nationalities, including a paid Russian contingent.
At different times in its
history the corps was headed or advised by a British officer detailed to
provide professional guidance to the primarily volunteer organization. Britain also provided some equipment and
other supplies on an informal basis.
There were several companies.
Company
‘A’ – Volunteer - Britons of pure white descent.
Company
‘B’ – Volunteer – Eurasians
Company
‘C’ – Volunteer – Chinese
Scottish
Company – kilted with pipes and di-ut-ns
Mounted
American Troop – ‘boy scout’ hats and American style cavalry uniforms
Battalion
of professional white Russians – British army uniforms
The corps was disbanded in
1942.