Médaille commémorative de la campagne du Soudan 1892

Although it had no official status, a medal that may be called the “commemorative medal of the Sudan campaign” did indeed exist. Despite its similarity to those for the Tonkin expedition, the First Madagascar expedition and the Dahomey expedition, no regulatory text mentions its creation.

The parliamentary debates of the session of 24 November 1892 nevertheless show that there was indeed a question of “rewarding the services rendered in Dahomey and Sudan by soldiers of the land and naval forces”: for this purpose, special contingents were created for both the Legion of Honour and the Military Medal, but only a “commemorative medal of the Dahomey expedition” was instituted.

The troops in Sudan were therefore deprived of “their medal”, while their neighbours in Dahomey had theirs.

The institution of the Colonial Medal in July 1893 definitively superseded the project for a specific commemorative medal for the Sudan campaign, if indeed it was still under consideration.