=The First Campaign Medal.=--The Dunbar medal--by the famous medallist, Thomas Simon, was struck in two sizes, in gold (1 in. by ·85 in.) and silver (1·35 in. by 1·15 in.), for presentation to officers and men who "did this excellent service," and, to use the quaint words of Oliver Cromwell, in "commemoration of that great mercie at Dunbar" where the Scots Royalists were defeated on September 3rd, 1650. Although these medals, which were worn suspended by a chain from the neck, cannot be regarded as campaign medals in the modern sense, they have the unique distinction of being the first of which there is a reliable record, indicating that the common soldiery and officers equally participated in the receipt of a military decoration for war service. This issue was exceptional, for throughout the existence of the Commonwealth, although medals were struck to commemorate naval victories over the Dutch, they were given to officers only, and during succeeding years this appears to have been the rule also until the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the custom was established to bestow upon all soldiers, from Field Marshal to drummer-boy, the same medal; that was after the battle of Waterloo, June 18th, 1815. [Illustration: THE DUNBAR MEDAL, 1650.] [Illustration: (Obverse.) (Reverse.) COMMEMORATIVE SILVER MEDAL FOR THE BATTLE OF OUDENARDE, 1708.] The Dunbar medal, as the illustration facing page 1 shows, bears on the obverse the bust of Cromwell in armour with the inscription in a semicircle above ~WORD AT DVNBAR~·THE LORD OF HOSTS ~SEPTEM Y3·1650~. On the reverse is quaintly depicted the House of Commons, which referred to the Committee of the Army the consideration of a grant of medals to officers and men who had served in Scotland, and to "set the proportions and the values of them, and their number, and present the estimate to the House." Bronze medals exist, but the reverses of these are plain, despite Cromwell's request that an Army should form the subject, which was only acceded to in so far as the legend is concerned, and a slight suggestion of a fight behind the bust of the Lord Protector. The Cromwellians voted the sum of £100 to provide a gold medal, for distinguished service, and chain for presentation to Colonel Mackworth, who, as governor of Shrewsbury, had refused to surrender the castle to the Royalists. Of Blake's medal and the other decorations for maritime warfare I shall treat in the section devoted to naval medals, but I might here remark upon the fact that in those Puritan days the seaman appears to have been as much a "handyman" as in modern times, for, like the present-day marine and seaman, he fought _Per Mare et per Terram_; at any rate Generals Blake and Monk did, for they received naval medals or awards from the Commonwealth for their services against the Dutch.