Description
Order of the Companions of Honour, King George V period issue, 1917-1934. One of the rarest of British Honours, to this day only 388 members have been inducted.
An original neck badge of a Member of the Companions of Honour, a single class honour.
Some chipping to the blue enamel of the motto and some light chipping to the red enamel of the crown through wearing.
The Order of the Companions of Honour was founded on 4th June 1917 by King George V, as a reward for outstanding achievements.
When it was originally founded during World War 1, the order was at first limited to 50 Members, before being slightly increased in 1943 to 65 members.
During the reign of King George V, only about 70 awards were made of this decoration, 20 of the original inductees having died to free up the spaces.
Of the 70 awards made during the reign of King George V, about 59 were Men and 11 were Women.
The awards were made to a very varied bunch, a full list of those honoured which would include the owner of this medal can be found here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Order_of_the_Companions_of_Honour
The order is extremely exclusive and is limited to only 65 members at a time since 1943, when a new member is inducted they retain their place for life, as such members can only really be released by death (as of yet none have been revoked, the closest being Sir Frederick Treves Baronet, who chose to be removed at his own request in 1918) so at the moment there has only ever been about 388 members the most recent being Sir Antony Gormley CH OBE RA, the British Sculptor, with 2 recently vacant slots due to death.
As badges would only be produced when needed, very few have ever been produced.
