The military medals collection of war decorations and badges of rank contains over 400 items, mainly donated by families of local soldiers and sailors and won in the two world wars together with small number of 19th century medals relating to the East Lancashire Regiment and its precursors. The most important being the Victoria Crosses awarded to two local men in the First World War, Lt.A Victor Smith and Private Thomas Whitham.
Another medal of similar distinction is the Albert Medal and citation won by Mr. Albert Howarth whilst a sailor in 1941. The Albert Medal was replaced by the George Cross in 1971 at which time Mr. Howarth presented the earlier decoration to the Museum.
Some of the earliest medals, such as a General Service Medal (1793-184 ) with bars for battles in Spain and two Waterloo medals were presented to the Museum by the East Lancashire Regiment. One interesting item from this group is a Canada Medal with a bar commemorating the Fenian Raid of 1866. Medals relating to the Boer War include a St. John's Ambulance Service Medal for 1899-1902 and two of the Burnley Tribute Medals which were given to 58 local volunteers who went to fight in South Africa.
The collection is recorded in the Modes database along with other commemorative medals with a Object Identity template name of amuse_MED.