The fourth-highest military order is to hit the auction-house on Sunday and is expected to be a popular item.

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, or lot 380 as it's known at Alnwick Auctions, has been given a humble estimateof £1,500, but is expected to sell for much more.

The 22-carat-gold medal is mainly awarded to officers of the Armed Services, as well as to a small number of civil servants.

Alnwick Auctions owner Nigel Blagburn said that he's had interest as far as London about the sale.

By the end of the 15th century, the ceremonial rituals disappeared but it was revived by George I in 1725 as a military order, to serve the purposes of the first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, who required an additional source for political rewards.

The medal at auction is believed to have come from around the 1850s, which would make it one of the first awarded around the time of the Crimean War, although this is not confirmed.

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Rare medal up at auction attracting national interest (www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/local-news/rare-medal-up-at-auction-attracting-national-interest-1-7176708)