Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Colonial Prison Service Long Service Medal, E.II.R. (Supt. of Prisons N. T. Smart, Fed. Malaya) good very fine, rare £300-£400

John Tamplin Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, September 2008.

The regulations for the Colonial Prison Service Medal were published in the Federation of Malaya Government Gazette of 30 May 1957. Soon afterwards, on 31 August 1957, the Federation of Malaya became an independent country within the Commonwealth. No awards of the Colonial Prison Service Medal were published in the Government Gazette and consequently this award cannot be traced.

Norman Thomas Smart was born in London on 10 January 1911. He entered the Colonial service on 1 January 1935, in the Prisons Department of the Malay Straits Settlements. After the War he continued in the Malayan Prisons Service and in October 1946 assumed duty as Warder in a local prison in Singapore. In December 1949 he assumed duty as a Warder at Johore Behru Prison. He was later promoted a Superintendent of Prisons, and in February 1956 assumed duty in that post at Penang.