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Auction: 20002 - Orders, Decorations, Medals & Space Exploration
Lot: 104

(x) An unusual India General Service Medal awarded to Surgeon Captain J. S. Stevenson, Indian Medical Service, who was used by his superior at Netley as a test-subject for a potential vaccine against typhoid

India General Service 1895-1908, 2 clasps, Punjab Frontier 1897-98, Tirah 1897-98 (Surgn. Lieut. J. S. Stevenson I.M.S.), officially re-engraved naming, good very fine

James Stuart Stevenson was born on 24 August 1872, the son of Surgeon General W. F. Stevenson, C.B., Army Medical Department. Training at St. Bartholomew's he qualified M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P. at the University of London, before being appointed to a commission with the Indian Medical Service as 2nd Lieutenant on 29 July 1896. It was around this time that he was posted to the Army School of Medicine at Netley - where he was the 'guinea pig' in experimental work carried out by Professor A. E. Wright, M.D., Professor of Pathology at the School, who was very keen to develop a vaccine against typhoid. A paper by Wright, published in The Lancet on 19 September 1896, titled 'On the association of Serious Haemorrhages with Conditions of Defective Blood-Coagulability', Stevenson, identified by his initials, featured as a test subject for the experimental vaccine; he survived without ill effects.

Promoted Captain on 29 July 1899, Stevenson died at Lucknow on 20 July 1900; sold with extensive copied research including the paper by Professor A. E. Wright and service history confirming entitlement taken from the Indian Medical Service.


Subject to 5% tax on Hammer Price in addition to 20% VAT on Buyer’s Premium.

Sold for
£260

Starting price
£130