Officer’s shako plate, British Foreign Legion, 1855 (c).
Associated with the Crimean War (1854-1856). 

In addition to raising a British Swiss Legion, the Government also enlisted German and Italian legionaries. At first the German contingent was known as the British Foreign Legion, but Queen Victoria intervened to have the appellation changed, writing to the Secretary of State for War on 3 Sep 1855: ‘The Queen wishes to remind Lord Panmure of the Foreign Legion being called the German Legion. .. She is sure that this will have a good effect in Germany and help the recruiting; the German papers have been taunting them with not being allowed to bear their own name.’