History of the British Empire Exhibition

It was the success of the Franco-British Exhibition, held at the White City, London, in 1908, that provided the inspiration for the British Empire Exhibition. If the Franco-British Exhibition was so popular, why not hold an exhibition to honour the greatest Empire the world had ever seen, through commerce, art and scientific achievements.

Thus in 1913, the idea that an exhibition should be held to glorify the British Empire was born. Had the first world war not intervened, the exhibition would undoubtedly have been held at the White City, but in 1920, in a moment of sublime inspiration, Wembley was adopted as the chosen location- on land which had been earmarked for housing!

The exhibition, with the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward V111) as President, opened its doors to the public on the 23rd April 1924, although the Empire Stadium, which had been completed a year earlier, had been used for the Cup Final of 1923 a year previously. Its official capacity was 125,000 people, but 200,000 turned up!

The stadium was located at the site of the famous Wembley Tower, designed to rival the famous Eiffel Tower in Paris. In 1907 the first stage of the tower was actually built, but it proved to be structurally unsound, and the project was abandoned.

The Exhibition was due to close on the 1st September 1924, but it had been such a success (and of course all the buildings end exhibits were in place) that it was decided to re-open it for a further season in 1925.

For the 1925 season, quite a few changes were made to the layout and many displays were altered and enlarged. The Prince of Wales was unavailable, so there was a new President for the 1925 exhibition, the Duke of York, the future King George V1.

The exhibition ran from the 9th May until it finally closed on the 31st October 1925. For the two years it was open, a total of 27,102,498 people visited the exhibition.

Four lions were designed for the exhibition. The Art Deco lion, which perhaps is the most famous, appears on the reverse of  medal cat. no. W21, as well as on many Cup Final tickets and the flag that flew over the stadium. It was designed by J. C. Herrick.

The design for the exhibition medal, cat no.W1, was designed by Percy Metcalfe. The six concrete lions in front of the Government Pavilion were designed by Benjamin Clemens, and the lions used for the postage stamps were designed by Harold Nelson.

It is interesting to note that some medals were issued officially, some the result of design competitions, (with the intention of promoting trade within the Empire with London as its principal city), whilst others were produced by private firms and businesses as a means of advertising their products.

I first became aware of the exhibition through its stamps and postcards which, as I lived locally, I found to be fascinating. But when several of the medals were later shown to me, I immediately saw the exhibition in a completely new light, and what was just a passing interest became a

That was forty years ago, and the passage of time has in no way dulled my enthusiasm. Although I am uncertain that my collection is complete, it might be and is an excellent representation of the medals produced for the exhibition.

A large proportion of the medals were actually struck at the exhibition. Above is a photograph of the stand owned by The Gramophone Company Ltd., or “His Master’s Voice”. In common with many similar businesses, they produced their own medallion for the exhibition (see Cat. no. W26).

The descriptions given are only a guide to the appearance of each medal. Complete, accurate descriptions are unnecessary, as each medal is pictured.

Over the last five years, the prices asked for these medals have risen dramatically, but when these rises are taken in the context of the very small production figures for many of them, along with the genuine demand from collectors, many can still be considered inexpensive .

Much effort has been made to make the numbering system easy to understand and as logical as possible, with each number beginning with a “W” for Wembley, and hopefully it will prove easy to follow easy to follow.