The design followed that of the China War Medals of AD 1842 and AD 1861. The obverse bears a bust of Queen Victoria, then the reigning British monarch; however, instead of William Wyon’s youthful portrait used on earlier medals, it adopted George William de Saulles’s effigy of the aged Queen from the South Africa Medal of AD 1900, depicting her wearing a small crown and widow’s veil and clad in formal dress. The surrounding inscription, “VICTORIA REGINA ET IMPERATRIX” (“Victoria, Queen and Empress”), differs from that of earlier China medals in the addition of “ET IMPERATRIX,” reflecting Queen Victoria’s assumption of the title Empress of India after AD 1876. On full-sized official issues, a faint line of lettering beneath the Queen’s shoulder records the name of the Royal Mint’s engraver, George William de Saulles.

The reverse depicts a palm tree, beneath which are arranged a shield bearing the Royal Arms, a cannon, and various weapons. This design was the work of William Wyon, a former Chief Engraver to the Mint. His original design—a lion, emblematic of Britain, trampling a dragon, representing China—was rejected by the British Government on the grounds that it would be unduly offensive to the Chinese.

The upper part of the medal is fitted with a claw-mounted, riveted, rotating straight bar, which connects it to both its ribbon and title plaque. The ribbon is red in its ground colour, with a single yellow stripe running along each side as ornamentation.

The First Opium War broke out in AD 1840 and concluded in AD 1842 with the signing of the Treaty of Nanking. The immediate cause was the imperial commission entrusted to Lin Zexu by the Daoguang Emperor in AD 1838 to eradicate the opium trade at Canton. Upon his arrival, Lin confiscated and destroyed more than 20,000 chests of British opium at Humen, provoking British retaliation and providing the pretext for military action against the Qing empire. Britain achieved victory in AD 1842.

The Treaty of Nanking, the first of the so-called “unequal treaties” in modern Chinese history, placed the Qing empire in a semi-colonial position. China thereby lost extraterritorial and tariff autonomy, granted most-favoured-nation privileges to Western powers, permitted the establishment of foreign concessions, and opened five ports—Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen, Fuzhou, and Guangzhou—to foreign trade.

In AD 1843, the British Government instituted the China War Medal to reward distinguished service during the First Opium War. The form of this medal was retained for the Second Opium War, though six additional clasps were authorised for that conflict. Following the intervention of the Eight-Nation Alliance in AD 1900, a new China War Medal was created; its reverse and ribbon followed the earlier pattern, but the obverse and legend incorporating Queen Victoria’s portrait were modified.

During the Boxer Uprising, internal tensions within the Qing court and surging anti-foreign sentiment enabled the rapid expansion of Boxer activities across northern China, culminating in escalating violence against foreign missions, missionaries, and civilians. In June AD 1900, the foreign Legation Quarter in Beijing was besieged for nearly eight weeks by the Boxers together with Qing forces. The British garrison—especially the Royal Marines—held key defensive positions, undertaking wall-building, covering fire, and close-quarters fighting. Captain Lewis Stratford Tollemache Halliday was awarded the Victoria Cross for continuing to command while severely wounded. Before the siege tightened, British forces had joined the international relief expedition advancing from the Taku and Beitang area, though progress in early June was impeded by heavy fighting along the railway. Tianjin became the major Boxer–Qing stronghold in June and July; after intense urban combat, British and allied forces captured the city, opening the route to Beijing. In August, the allied armies advanced on the capital, fighting around Yongdingmen, the Dongjiaomin Lane district, and the outer defences of the Forbidden City. The Legation Quarter was relieved on 14 August AD 1900, marking the military collapse of Qing resistance. In the aftermath, the Qing Government was compelled to sign the Boxer Protocol (Xinchou Treaty), which imposed heavy indemnities, garrison rights, and extensive diplomatic concessions.

The China War Medal of AD 1900 was thus established in AD 1902 to commemorate British military operations during the Boxer Uprising. It was awarded principally to Royal Navy, Royal Marines, British Army, and Indian Army personnel serving between June and October AD 1900 in northern China, including those engaged in combat, movement, supply, or garrison duties. Certain civilian medical staff also received the silver medal, while locally employed personnel might receive it in bronze. Clasps were issued for particular operations, the rarest being “Defence of the Legations,” awarded only to those who had held the defences of the besieged Legation Quarter in Beijing. On the British roll, the clasp was granted to merely three officers and seventy-nine other ranks, making it one of the most exceptional clasps associated with any British campaign medal.

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