Third China War Medal, awarded to Ord. F. Whittle, 1901
Image["Third China War Medal, 1901"]Obverse, a bust of Queen Victoria
Image["Third China War Medal, 1901"]Reverse, a collection of war trophies including a royal shield below palm tree
Third China War Medal, 1901 (Boxer Rebellion)
The extent to which
foreign powers appeared to be able to intervene in nineteenth-century China without effective opposition from the Imperial dynasty led to considerable resentment among the population. In 1897 Germany, Russia, Britain and France seized four Chinese ports on various pretexts and this, with more local situations providing flashpoints, sparked off a military uprising by a resistance group called the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, known in the West as Boxers. Starting in 1898 foreigners and Christian Chinese were subjected to increasingly brutal persecution by the Boxers, whom the Imperial Government, in the hands of the Dowager Empress Cixi, were now supporting as useful tools to remove foreign powers from China. It took the Western powers some time to assemble a coalition force strong enough (mostly Japanese, but with contingents from Russia, Britain, France, the USA, Germany, Italy and Austro-Hungary as well as some Chinese) to relieve the foreign population of Beijing and finally suppress the uprising.
The recipient of this medal was Orderly F. Whittle of
HMS Endymion (not to be confused with
the earlier frigate of the name, some of whose crew's
medals have also
become part of the Watson collection). The medal was purchased by Lester Watson at some point before 1928.
