British North Borneo Company’s GSM 1937-41

 

General Service In North Borneo.

 

Further relevant historical context can be found at the foot of this entry.

 

 

This British North Borneo Company’s General Service Medal 1937-41 was instituted in 1937 and issued to the British North Borneo Company staff, Constabulary and various civilians for service in North Borneo that was considered either ‘specially valuable’, or, ‘long and meritorious’ (meaning service more than 18 years), or, for ‘exceptional courage’.

 

Only 44 medals (plus one replacement) were issued, and of these, only one for ‘exceptional courage’, and as such is unique and incredibly rare.

 

The recipients of the 44 medals were government officials, armed constabulary, rubber planters, the Archdeacon, the Chairman of the Chamber Of Commerce, railway managers, businessmen and local dignitaries.

 

 

The medal is circular, 38mm in diameter and was struck in either silver or bronze.

 

 

The obverse of this medal depicts the shield of the Company flanked by warriors as supporters. Above the shield are two arms, one clothed and the other naked, supporting the Company flag. Below the shield is the inscription; ‘PERGO ET PERAGO’ (I carry on and accomplish).

 

The reverse depicts the seated figure of Britannia facing right, holding a trident in her left hand, with her right hand resting on a shield, which bears the Union flag.

 

Around the top of the medal is the inscription; ‘NORTH BORNEO GENERAL SERVICE MEDAL’ and below the figure of Britannia is a branch with leaves.

 

The ribbon suspender is a plain ring attached to a fastening that surmounts the medal.

 

The medal was issued un-named.

 

 

 

The ribbon is 35mm wide and is half green and half yellow, additionally, the single medal issued for gallantry, has a narrow red centre stripe.

 

 

None were authorised for this medal.

 

Further relevant historical context can be found at the foot of this entry.

 

 

 

* It should be noted that the values quoted above reflect the average price that a medal dealer may expect to sell this medal for - please see the ‘things you should know’ web page for more details about valuing medals.

 

 

This section contains information on:-

 

- The British North Borneo Company.

 

The British North Borneo Company - The North Borneo Chartered Company or British North Borneo Company, was a chartered company assigned to administer North Borneo (today's Sabah in Malaysia) in August 1881. North Borneo became a protectorate of the British Empire with internal affairs administered by the company until 1946 when it became the Crown Colony of British North Borneo.

 

The main motto was ‘Pergo et Perago’ (Latin), which means 'I undertake and I achieve'. The first chairman of the company was Alfred Dent.

 

In 1882, the North Borneo Chartered Company established a settlement on Pulau Gaya, one year after the Chartered Company was given the mandate to rule Sabah. However, in 1897, this settlement was burnt to the ground during the raid led by Mat Salleh, a Sabah tribal Chief and it was never re-established. This company is also known as 'Syarikat Borneo Utara British' and was criticised by the locals for the taxes it collected.

 

Establishing law and order as well as recruiting Sikh policeman from North India was one of the early roles the NBCC initiated, as well as expanding trade, a system of government, courts to enforce laws and punishment and building both a railway line from Jesselton to Tenom and encouraging the harvesting and barter trade of both local agriculture produce and crops, as well as establishment of plantations.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.