An unusual O.B.E. group of twelve awarded to Lieutenant-Commander D. H. Trumble, Royal Navy and Colonial Service

The Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Civil) 2nd type; 1939-45 Star; Pacific Star; Defence & War Medals; Coronation 1953; Brunei, Meritorious Service Medal; Sultan Ahmad Tajudin 25th Anniversary Medal 1949; Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Accession Medal 1951; Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Accession Medal 1968; The Most Honourable Order of the Crown of Brunei, 2nd Class set by Spink & Son, comprising neck badge and breast star, in silver, gilt and enamels, in fitted case of issue; The Distinguished Order of Paduka Seri Laila Jasa, 3rd Class neck badge by Spink & Son, in silver, gilt and enamel, in fitted case of issue together with original letter from the Grand Chamberlain, Office of H.H. The Sultan of Brunei, dated 4 April 1972, the first ten mounted as worn and contained in a wooden carrying case with metal label inscribed ‘D.H.T.’, together with the recipient’s Colonial Service dress sword by Wilkinson, the shell-guard inscribed ‘D. M. Trumble, O.B.E., D.P.M.B., H.M. Colonial Service’, in its leather scabbard with gilt fittings, nearly extremely fine (14) £1200-1500

See Colour Plate IV

The group is accompanied by a family note, dated 27 November 1996, which states: “My Father, Denis Hugh Trumble, had been recruited in the early 1930’s because he was initially in the Excise Dept. of the Malayan Customs & Excise Dept. of the Colonial Office. During the war he was called up with the rank of Lieutenant and transferred to Naval Intelligence and then to S.R.D. (Services Reconnaissance Dept.) - the Australian equivalent of S.O.E. - and then transferred to Ceylon with Force 136 (Special Forces). At the end of the war he was a Lt. Commander in Naval Intelligence and continued ‘unofficially’ in this capacity, although no longer in the Navy, until 1954.”