I cannot find any prominent French official from the late 1890's in Algeria or Morocco named Durayd. However, this is a transliteration back to French of an Arabic inscription.

I'm wondering if this might be Charles Dorian. He was Parliamentary deputy for the Loire region. He accompanied the famous Foreau-Lamy mission 1898-1900, presented to the French Parliament (which was anti-colonialist in general) as a "scientific expedition" but which was in fact military to its core organized by the Army in Algeria. It crossed the Sahara and joined up with two other columns, one from Brazzaville and one from Senegal/Mali to take the Lake Chad area.

Dorian left the column in what is now Niger and set out west to try to link up with the Senegal column. He wound up continuing on down to the Atlantic coast in Dahomey which he reached on 18 May 1900. It's still possible for him to have made his way back to France in time to commission the decoration of the gun.

Sunset in N'Djamna (old Fort Lamy) from a few years ago. That's the Chari River (during Rainy season - November-December) heading down to Lake Chad right before the junction with the Logone River (border with Cameroon)....I spent some time there.
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

Last edited by Argo44; 03/06/23 11:32 PM.
Baluch are not Brahui, Brahui are Baluch