The first campaign medal awarded to British soldiers is reckoned to
be that given to those men who fought at Waterloo in 1815, but a
decade and a half earlier a group of regiments were awarded a
unique badge - a figure of a Sphinx - to mark their service in
Egypt in 1801. It was a fitting distinction, for the successful
campaign was a remarkable one, fought far from home by a British
army which had so far not distinguished itself in battle against
Revolutionary France, and one moreover which had the most profound
consequences in the Napoleonic wars to come. In 1798 a quixotic
French expedition led by a certain General Bonaparte not only to
seize Egypt and consolidate French influence in the Mediterranean,
but also to open up a direct route to Indian and provide an
opportunity to destroy the East India Company and fatally weaken
Great Britain. In the event, General Bonaparte returned to France
to mount a coup which would eventually see him installed as Emperor
of the French, but behind him he abandoned his army, which remained
in control of Egypt, still posing a possible threat to the East
India Company, until in 1801 a large but rather heterogeneous
British Army led by Sir Ralph Abercrombie landed and in a series of
hard-fought battles utterly defeated the French. Not only did this
campaign establish the hitherto rather doubtful reputation of the
British Army, and help secure India, but its capture en route of
the islands of Malta gained Britain a base which would enable it to
dominate the Mediterranean for the next century and a half. This
little understood, but profoundly important campaign at last
receives the treatment it deserves in the hands of renowned
historian Stuart Reid.
General
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