Order of Supreme Loyalty

In our last blog post, we discussed the Service Medal of the Venerable Order of St John. It is interesting to note that individual priories, commanderies, and other foundations of the Order have their own decorations and awards. One such example is the St John Ambulance in Malaysia. This foundation has a completely unique scheme of awards that are available to members of the SJA in that nation.

After the award of membership in the VOSJ, the highest honour one can achieve in the SJAM is the Darjah Setia Utama or Order of Supreme Loyalty. According to the SJAM statutes, only one of these awards will be given in any year and only 10 living recipients are allowed.

The next award is the Darjah Bakti Perkasa of Order of Supreme Merit. This comes with similar stipulations: only three awards are conferred in any year and it is limited to 30 living recipients at a time.

Next is the Pingat Jasa Gemilang or Splendid Service Medal (the best name of them all, in our opinion), of which only five are distributed in any year.

After the Splendid Service Medal comes the Pingat Jasa Cemerlang or Distinguished Service Medal (five per year again).

Finally, individuals are eligible for the Pingat Jasa Terpuji or Meritorious Service Medal.

In the order of precedence for the SJAM, after the Pingat Jasa Terpuji comes the Life-Saving Medal of the VOSJ, and then a unique Medal for Bravery of the SJAM. This Pingat Gagah Berani is awarded in three classes (gold, silver, and bronze).

Finally, after all of these other medals and awards, is the Service Medal that we discussed on Friday. This is quite a developed system of awards that is more or less separate from the rest of the VOSJ and its foundations.