Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Brunei, Sultanate, Order of Loyalty to the State of Brunei, Second Class set of insignia, by Spink, London, comprising neck badge, 93mm including Star and Crescent suspension x 59mm, silver-gilt and enamel; Star, 82mm, silver, silver-gilt and enamel, with maker's cartouche to reverse and gold retaining pin, with neck riband bad lapel rosette, in slightly damaged case of issue, nearly extremely fine (2) £400-£500

Attributed to Thomas George Thomas, 1st Viscount Tonypandy, when he was Secretary of State for Wales, on the occasion of the Visit the Sultan of Brunei to Wales.

Thomas George Thomas, 1st Viscount Tonypandy, was born in Port Talbot, Wales, on 29 January 1909, and educated at Tonypandy Grammar School and University College Southampton. After working as a schoolmaster in both London and Cardiff, he was elected to the House of Commons as Labour Member of Parliament for Cardiff Central in 1945, and in 1950 was returned for the new seat of Cardiff West, a seat he retained until his retirement from the Commons in 1983. He served as Secretary of State for Wales in Harold Wilson’s government from 1968-70, and was elected Speaker of the House of Commons on 3 February 1976, in which role the first broadcasting of parliamentary proceedings brought him unprecedented public attention, with his Welsh cries of “Order! Order!” becoming familiar to a generation of Britons. He retired as Speaker on 10 June 1983, and was raised to the peerage as Viscount Tonypandy (a viscountcy being the traditional honour for retiring Speakers for over 200 years). He died in Cardiff on 22 September 1997, heirless.

Sold with a photographic image of the recipient with the Sultan.