Sarawak: Long Service Decoration. Rajah Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke obverse. Awarded circa 1928-1946. Silver

The medal complete with original issue silk riband suspended from a white metal mounting bar. The mounting bar retaining its hinged pin & clasp fittings

Awards of the handsome hexagonal shaped 'Long Service Decoration' were made to officials & officers of the administration, local indigenous nobles, village headmen etc and was much less prolific than the circular 'Long Service Medal' that was awarded to junior native employees and other ranks of the Sarawak administration. A dated silver clasp for periods of 10 years additional service was awarded to those who met the additional qualifying criteria

Reference: 'Sarawak Long Service Awards' (John Tamplin, published in the Orders & Medals Research Society Journal 'Miscellany of Honours' issue 1982 (pages 49-58)), it is estimated that only 282 awards of the Long Service Decoration were awarded circa 1924-1946

Note: No awards of this decoration were made after 1941 - the period post 1941 being marked by Japanese occupation of Sarawak through to 1945, in which year after liberation by Australian Imperial Forces, a British Military Administration, was created to govern the territory during the formal transfer of power to British Crown Colony status in 1946

Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke (1874-1963) succeeded his father, Sir Charles Johnson Brooke, in 1917 as the third and last 'White Rajah' of Sarawak. He abdicated in 1946 when Sarawak was ceded to Britain as a Crown Colony, and subsequently all awards of Orders, Decorations and Medals that had hitherto borne the obverse portraits and styles of the 'White Rajahs' was ended (albeit the awards already issued could still be worn in uniform). Sarawak gained its independence from the United Kingdom on 22 July 1963 and on 16 September 1963 it was admitted into the Federation of Malaysia

For a useful article on the 'White Rajah's' of Sarawak, see below that was published in the 'London Gazette' website;

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/content/100727

A choice example of a rare & desirable colonial era decoration

Condition: Toned about EF

Code: 21226