These images are provided for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND). To license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who will discuss fees, terms and waivers.
Download this imageCreative commons explained - what it means, how you can use our's and other people's content.
Mint:
Liège
Issuer:
Kleyer, G.
State:
Belgium
Mint:
Liîge
German strategy at the outbreak of the Great War relied on a rapid and crushing defeat of French forces to enable a response in force to the slower-moving threat of Russia on the Eastern Front. The extensive preparations of French defences however meant that for surprise and maximum effect such an attack would have to be delivered via neutral Belgium.
Thus when the war began in 1914, one of the first German targets was the defensive complex around the Belgian town of Liège. Initial attacks on 5 August were driven off, despite Zeppelin bombing raids, but on 7 August German forces occupied the town, with infamous savagery. An outer ring of forts remained obdurate, however, for another ten days, being reduced one by one by the heaviest artillery available to the Germans without any hope of relief.
In 1920 this heroic but vain defence was commemorated with the issue of the Médaille de Liège to all survivors from the defending forces by the town's mayor, Gustave Kleyer. This example bears no name, and its recipient is unknown. Lester Watson purchased it from the London dealers Baldwin in 1927.
History note: Gift of L. Hoyt Watson; ex Lester Watson Collection, bt Baldwin 1927
Given by Lester Watson through Cambridge in America, 2009
Diameter: 34 mm
Weight: 17.46 g
Method of acquisition: Given (2009) by Watson, Lester
Production date: AD 1920
Inscription present: Soldiers amid shattered defences
Inscription present: Liège War Memorial against star and foliate backgrounds
Accession number: CM.1296-2009
Primary reference Number: 141390
Watson Catalogue: 199
Ordering: M-0179
Previous object number: LW.0179
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Coins and Medals
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Médaille de Liège" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/141390 Accessed: 2024-05-06 19:22:15
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/141390
|title=Médaille de Liège
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-05-06 19:22:15|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:
https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-141390
To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:
<div class="text-center">
<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0179_281_29.jpg"
alt="Médaille de Liège"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Médaille de Liège</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
Accession Number: P.5147-R
Accession Number: ML.3-1992
Accession Number: CM.581-2013
Accession Number: CM.582-2013
Updates about future exhibitions and displays, family activities, virtual events & news. You'll be the first to know...
