*The Royal Victorian Order, Grand Cross (G.C.V.O.) sash badge, in silver, silver-gilt and enamels, with original sash as worn, reverse officially numbered ‘499’, toned, extremely fine. G.C.V.O.: 4 July 1921 – ‘Visit to Britain of King Albert I and Queen Elizabeth of the Belgians’ .This badge was awarded to the Belgian Diplomat Baron Ludovic Moncheur (1857-1940), offered here by direct descent. Baron Moncheur was born on May 12, 1857 at Brussels, Belgium, the son of Francois Moncheur, Minister of Public Works, who was granted the hereditary peerage of ‘Baron’ from Leopold II in 1881. Ludovic was educated at the Catholic University of Louvain and entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1882. In his early career he undertook diplomatic positions in The Hague (1883), Madrid (1885), Vienna (1886), Berlin (1887), Lisbon (1888) and Rome (1890) and was appointed Minister Resident in Mexico City in 1897, and then at Washington in 1901. During this time he became a close friend of President Theodore Roosevelt, visiting him at the White House, exchanging personal letters, and later receiving a signed copy of the President’s own book ‘Good Hunting’. That same year in 1901, Baron Moncheur was promoted to Minister Plenipotentiary, and served in this position in Constantinople between 1909 and November 1914, when the Ottoman Empire entered the war. For his final diplomatic posting he served as Belgian Ambassador to the United Kingdom between 31 October 1917 and 3 July 1927 - the first Belgian Ambassador to the Court of St. James. He died in Brussels on 25 June 1940.

Estimate: GBP 1000 - 1500