Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The C.M.G. attributed to Miss Tessa Solesby, who led the U.K. delegation at the U.N. disarmament conference in Geneva, and was one of the first women in the British diplomatic service to achieve the rank of Ambassador

The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., Companion’s lady’s shoulder badge, silver-gilt and enamel, on lady’s bow riband, together with a section of narrow width neck riband, in Spink, London, case of issue, extremely fine £400-500

C.M.G. London Gazette 1 January 1986.

Tessa Audrey Hilda Solesby was born in London and educated at Clifton High School, Bristol, and St. Hugh’s College, Oxford. She joined the diplomatic service in 1956, and served in Manila, Lisbon, Geneva, and New York. Promoted to Counsellor in 1975, she was posted to the N.A.T.O. Secretariat in Brussels and East Berlin, before returning to New York as acting Minister. She was head of the Central Africa Department from 1982 until 1986, before moving to Pretoria on promotion to Minister, and was created a Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George. The following year she was appointed leader of the U.K. delegation to the U.N. disarmament conference in Geneva, with the rank of Ambassador, one of the first women in the British diplomatic service to achieve this rank. Her period in Geneva coincided with the end of the Cold War, and after five years of patient diplomacy she had the satisfaction of seeing the new chemical weapons convention adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1992. She retired later that year, and subsequently served as Chief Officer of the charity Age Concern. She died in 2016.

Sold together with a Foreign and Commonwealth Office letter to the recipient informing her of the award of the C.M.G., dated 7 November 1985; a letter informing her of her promotion to the Senior Grade in the Diplomatic Service; and a copy of the Order of Service for the Service of Commemoration and Dedication of the Order, St. Paul’s Cathedral, 16 July 2008.