Medals as we know them today originated from being issued to Naval Officers ‘large and small gold medals’ with on the reverse the name of the battle hand engraved i.e. ‘1st June 1794', known as the ‘Glorious 1st of June’ and the name of the recipient on the edge, similar medals were issued for ‘The Battle of Trafalgar’. 

Large and small gold medals were also awarded to the army. The first was that for ‘Maida 1806' for actions in Calabria in what is now the modern Italy when the British army defeated the French army and were issued for all the major actions of the Penninsular war. 

Coin manufacturer Allexander Davison decided to issue bronze medals to Able Seamen who took part in the Battle of the Nile in 1798, this being the first medal awarded to British naval ratings as well as their officers. For the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, Mr Davison and his competitor Mathew Boulton both manufactured medals to be awarded to seaman and in the case of Mathew Boulton also to officers and N.C.O.’s.  It was not until 1848 that the navy and army were officially awarded medals for the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.  The navy receiving 230 different clasps for the various battles and actions, and the army 29.  Some of these clasps even covered actions in the war of independence when the Americans fought the British for autonomy. 

The Battle of Waterloo in 1815 saw the issue a year later for service in the defeat of the French armies and this was the first time men other than officers, officially received a medal from the King. 

Medals and clasps were also issued in 1848 to those men who fought in India in the Maharatta, Nepalese and Burmese wars.  Over the past two hundred years the British have issued over 92 Campaign Medals with over 600 different clasps. Many unofficial but highly collectable awards have been made including those by the H.E.I.C (Honourable East India Company), the St. Jean D’Acre medals by the Sultan of Turkey and also by the Sultan, the Turkish Crimea medal of 1854, Khedive Star 1882-91, Sudan medal of 1896-1908 and that of 1910-22.  Recent issues include the Saudi Arabia and Kuwait medals for the liberation of Kuwait in 1991.  Since 1950 the United Nations have issued numerous medals with over 50 different ribbons and the NATO Forces issued a medal in 1994 which has since covered over 8 campaigns in different theatres of war to the present day.