VINTAGE WW1 FRENCH CIVILIAN PRISONERS & HOSTAGES OF THE GERMANS SERVICE MEDAL

Offered is an original WW1 French civlian prisoners, deportees & hostages medal.

32mm wide circular bronze medal with laterally-pierced ball suspension; the face with a female standing figure with head bowed, her right wrist in chains, her left hand letting fall a flaming torch, a ruined village beyond, signed ‘M Delannoy’; the reverse inscribed ‘PRISONNIERS CIVILS DEPOTREES ET OTAGES DE LA GRANDE GUERRE’ above laurel leaves, all within a chain border; on correct ribbon.

The medal was instituted on 14 March 1936 to recognise and remember the sacrifices of civil prisoners, deportees and hostages from the German-occupied parts of France in World War I. In all, some 11,000 awards of the medal were made. The medal is increasingly hard to find.