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Medal - King George V Coronation Medal

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Overview

The King George V Coronation Medal is a commemorative medal instituted in 1911 to celebrate the coronation of King George V, that took place on 22 June 1911. All awards were in silver, the medal being 32 millimetres in diameter. The obverse has a profile of King George V and his wife Queen Mary in coronation robes, facing left. The reverse has the crowned Royal Cypher above the date of the coronation, 22 June 1911. The medal was designed by the Australian sculptor Bertram Mackennal. The 32 millimetres wide ribbon is dark blue with two thin red stripes in its centre.

Historical information

The King George V Coronation Medal was the first British Royal commemorative medal to be awarded to people who were not in attendance at the coronation as well of those involved in the ceremony, it was given to selected dignitaries, officials and members of the armed forces, both in Britain and across the Empire.
On 30 June 1911 a special ceremony was held in the grounds of Buckingham Palace for King George V to present medals to all members of the Colonial and Indian contingents who had represented the overseas troops in the Coronation procession.
For this and subsequent Coronation and Jubilee medals until 1977, the practice was that the United Kingdom authorities decided on a total number to be produced, then allocated a proportion to each of the colonies, the Crown dependencies and the Commonwealth countries. The award of the medals was then at the discretion of the local government authority, who were free to decide who would be awarded a medal and why. A total of 15,901 medals were awarded including 286 to Australians.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-32-99-351

Inscriptions and markings

The medal was awarded unnamed.

Contextual Information

Multiple examples of this medal are retained either singly or in groups as an ongoing commemoration of the service of Western Australians. Medals are displayed in context throughout the Museum. All medals are identified, archivally stored and those not on display are accessible and viewable with prior notice. As with all Royal Commemorative medals, an issue was made to living Victoria Cross recipients

Australian Army Museum of Western Australia

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