A firman awarding the 5th Class of the Mecidiye Order to Lieutenant Colonel William Samuel Newton of the Coldstream Guards for his bravery in battle during the Crimean War
Ottoman Turkey, dated to the beginning of the month of Rabi' II 1274/early 1857
Ottoman Turkish manuscript on paper, partially lithographed text, four lines of text in divani script in black ink, tughra of Sultan Abdulmajid (reg. 1839-61) in gold at top
560 x 350 mm.
Footnotes:
Provenance
Private UK collection: presented to the current owner by his uncle, a military historian, in the late 1980s or early 1990s.

William Newton (1816-1889) was Regimental Lieutenant-Colonel of the Coldstream Guards in 1860 and 1861.

The Order of the Mecidi Nişan, modelled on the French Legion d'Honneur, was instituted in 1852 by Sultan Abdulmajid I in five classes and could be awarded to men and women, both Turkish and foreign, military and civil for meritorious service. The Order was abolished in 1923 with the establishment of the Turkish Republic.

The Fifth Class, the lowest, had an order in silver, and was awarded to a number of foreign participants in the Crimean War, for example, Eugene Chauffeur, a French army officer who was at the Siege of Sevastopol, and Lt. Col. Alfred Tippinge (1817-98) of the Grenadier Guards, who was also at Sevastopol, as well as the battles of Alma, Balaclava and Inkerman (and who was in addition awarded the French Legion d'Honneur).