Rayed bronze star with six longer arms, four rays and a shorter arm between each longer arm, on hinged oval laurel wreath with laterally-pierced ball suspension; the face with a circular central laterally-hatched gilt medallion with a central red enamel Greek (Geneva) cross, to the left an escutcheon bearing the Arms of Paris in red and blue enamel and gilt, to the right an escutcheon bearing the arms of the Dukedom of Brittany in black and white enamel, within a blue enamel ring inscribed in gilt letters ‘HOSPITALLIERS SAUVETEURS DE FRANCE · PARIS’; the reverse plain; minute chip to the lower arm of the red cross; lacking ribbon. The Société des Hospitaliers Sauveteurs Bretons was founded in 1873 by M. Nadault de Buffon and concerned itself with life-saving on the north and northwest coasts of France. In 1967 it merged with the Société Centrale de Sauvetage des Naufragés to form the Société Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer (S.N.S.M.). The Society issued Medals of Honour for acts of bravery in lifesaving and also Insignia, as in this example, for those who supported the work of the Society, in this case those in Paris. An older insignia of good quality.
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