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The Introduction of the 1813-1815 Silver Cross

By Royal decree number 45 of May 10, 1865 an honorary military decoration was introduced to reward military personnel of all ranks who served between 1813 and 1815 to re-establish the sovereignty of The Netherlands. Although the cross is often referred to as the Dutch “Waterloo Medal,” its scope was much broader as it was awarded to those that served between 1813 and 1815 and as a result many recipients never fought at Waterloo. However, any soldier who served at the battles of Quatre-Bras or Waterloo in June 1815 and had not been dishonourably discharged or been convicted of any crime since would have been eligible had he been alive in 1865.

Given the significance of the wars of 1813-1815 it is hard to understand why it took a 50-year anniversary to finally introduce a general service award. Maybe the French decision in 1857 to honour its veterans with the St. Helena Medal contributed to the decision.

Many Dutch veterans of Napoleon’s army were awarded this French medal even as they were serving in the Dutch army. Figure 2 shows one such veteran of Napoleon’s army now serving in the Dutch army. The image was taken between 1860 and 1865 and shows Colonel D.J. van Winsheym (1792-1877) wearing the St. Helena Medal that he was awarded in 1857. Van Winsheym served as a 1st Lieutenant in the French 129th Infantry Regiment during the Russian campaign of 1812.

He was taken prisoner by the Russians between Minsk and Vilna during the retreat from Moscow in December 1812. He was released from captivity in April 1814 and upon his return joined the army of the Kingdom of The Netherlands. After 40 years service as an officer, he was

honourably discharged from the Dutch army in 1854 as Colonel and military commander of the city of Breda.

The Design and Strikes of the Cross

The 1813-1815 Silver Cross (Figure 3) is a five-armed silver cross which measures 35mm and has a circular center measuring 16mm. The center shows the year 1813. The background to the center is decorated with a chequered pattern while the arms are decorated with a scaly pattern between 1.5mm-wide even borders. The reverse (Figure 4) is identical to the obverse with the exception of the year, which reads 1815 on the reverse. The crosses were stamped with a small sword, the official Figure 1: Obverse of the St. Helena

Medal.

Figure 2: Colonel D. J. van Winsheym wearing the St.-Helena Medal.

Figure 3: The obverse of the 1813-1815 Silver Cross.

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Dutch small silver mark and the mark PZ. There are two different strikes as some crosses have a ‘dot’ just after the year 1815 and some do not (Figure 5). I realise that this is a minor difference but nevertheless one that is clearly visible. I examined 15 crosses from private collections, museums and medal auctions and found that 11 out of 15 had the dot. Unfortunately the sample size is not statistically significant enough to draw conclusions as to which version is the least common. There are also four different ways the crosses are stamped because both the PZ mark and the silver mark can appear on either side of the medal. In my sample of 15 crosses, 13 show the PZ mark on the obverse while only two had the mark on the reverse.

The ribbons are yellow-orange with 27mm wide white stripes near the edges and quite delicate. As a result, many ribbons have not survived over time.

The First Award Ceremony in Leiden

Veterans of the 1813-1815 wars had to file an official request with the Minister of War to be awarded the decoration. The request had to include documents to prove entitlement to the award, such as service records or other confirmations of active service. Those no longer in active service and not registered as military pensioners also had to submit a statement of good conduct certified by the municipal council of the veteran’s hometown.

The first crosses were awarded on June 27, 1865 in the Dutch city of Leiden during the commemoration of the 50-year anniversary of the founding of the Military Order of William. Prince William Frederick Charles of Orange-Nassau, by now a Field Marshal in the Dutch army, was the first veteran to receive the cross, which was presented to him in the church of St. Peter by King William III (1817-1890), his nephew and reigning monarch. In the medal award ceremony that followed, 600 veterans were given their crosses by the Minister of War General J.W. Blanken (1806-1880) and by General C. Baron Nepveu (1791-1871). General Nepveu himself was also awarded the cross. Interestingly, the General had actually fought under Napoleon and served as an aide-de-camp to General J. Barbanègre (1772-1830) during the campaign to Russia in 1812. At Waterloo he served as aide-de-camp to General J.V. Baron de Constant Rebecque (1773-1850), chief-of-staff of the Dutch army. General Nepveu certainly wasn’t the only veteran of the 1813-1815 wars to have previously served under French command, especially amongst the officers.

Colonel D. J. van Winsheym, mentioned earlier in the article and shown in Figure 2 wearing the St-Helena medal, was also among the 600 veterans to receive the first crosses. To get a feeling for the number of officers with past military experience in the French army, I randomly took the names of 25 officers who had been awarded the 1813-1815 Silver Cross and found based on their military records that 15 of them had served under Napoleon.

In the months that followed, a total of approximately 5,000 crosses were awarded to veterans of the 1813-1815 wars, which were presented to them by their mayors. Crosses were awarded to both army and navy personnel although the latter have been limited. Although Belgium had gained independence in 1830, those veterans of the

Figure 4: The reverse of the 1813-1815 Silver Cross.

Figure 5: The reverse of the 1813-1815 silver cross with (top) and without

(bottom) the ‘dot’ after the year 1815.

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1813-1815 wars now living in Belgium were also eligible to the award.

The last award took place more than 30 years later, albeit not to a veteran but to a regiment. In August 1896, the regimental standard of the Dutch 8th Infantry Regiment was decorated with the cross to honour the regiment’s conduct during the battle of Waterloo.

The Certificates

The recipients also received medal certificates, an example of which is shown in Figure 6. The center of the certificate shows the national coat of arms of The

Netherlands and a text which, translated into English reads:

CERTIFICATE

MINISTRY OF WAR

Based on His Majesty’s decree of 10 May 1865 number 45, which introduced an honorary medal for those serving in the Dutch military and had contributed to the military actions that re-established the country’s sovereignty in the years 1813-1815, hereby confirms that (recipient) is entitled to wear the honorary medal mentioned above as a token of His Majesty’s appreciation of the services rendered to the country

Figure 6: Certificate for the 1813-1815 Silver Cross awarded to 1st Lieutenant N. C. Smith.