Marianne Elisabeth Lloyd-Dolbey

Marianne Elisabeth Lloyd-Dolbey (18 October 1919, Drešinja Vas, Kingdom of Yugoslavia – 10 October 1994, Celje, Slovenia) was personal secretary to Sultan of Brunei Omar Ali Saifuddien III.

Datin

Marianne Elisabeth Lloyd-Dolbey
Born(1919-10-18)18 October 1919
Drešinja Vas
Died10 October 1994(1994-10-10) (aged 74)
Celje
OccupationPersonal secretary and translator
EmployerBrunei Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien III

Marianne was born in 1919 as Marjana Elizabeta Kopše, to father Franc and mother Marjana (born Vrabič) in Drešinja Vas, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, as the first born in a family of eleven children. Her birth house still stands at the old main road between Drešinja Vas and Levec. After finishing primary school in Petrovče she enrolled at the Celje First Grammar School where she obtained her secondary school certificate in 1938. In the spring and summer of 1939 she was learning Italian in Rome, Italy, and English in the spring of 1941 in Dresden, Germany. During World War II she worked as a translator at the German Embassy in Zagreb, Croatia.

At the end of World War II she retreated to Carinthia in Austria which became part of the British occupation zone of Austria. While working as a translator for the British Troops in Austria she met her future husband, the English officer Raoul Teesdale Lloyd-Dolbey.[1] They got married in London in 1949 and moved to Brunei where her husband inherited rubber plantations (Brunei Rubber and Land Company - BRLC) .[2] Brunei was at that time a British Protectorate on the northern side of the island Borneo.

Since Marianne was in the early 1950s one of the very few educated women in Brunei, she became a lady-in-waiting at the court of Raja Isteri (Queen) Pengiran Anak Damit [3] and later the personal secretary to her husband, the 28th Sultan of Brunei Omar Ali Saifuddien III [4] In this capacity, she was a close eyewitness to the introduction of the 1959 Constitution, the Brunei revolt in 1962, the voluntary abdication of Omar Ali Saifuddien III in 1967 in favor of his 21-year-old son Hassanal Bolkiah, who became the 29th Sultan of Brunei and who is still in reign, the state visit of Queen Elizabeth II in Brunei in 1972, and finally of the Brunei declaration of independence from Great Britain in 1984.

ME Lloyd-Dolbey 1960

Marianne was for the Sultan's family a girl for everything, she assisted with the organization of receptions, visits, various celebrations, weddings, and travels abroad, in particular to England. Among her protocol assignments was also to be present at childbirths in the Sultan's family. When necessary she acted also as a translator since she was fluent in Malay language which was spoken at the court, as well as in Brunei Malay, spoken colloquially in everyday life.

As a token of appreciation for her dedicated service to the Sultan's family, she received a number of high Brunei decorations and in this way also the Malay honorific title of a Datin.

In 1980's Marianne gradually retired and moved with her husband back to Europe. She spent the summers with her husband mostly in Drešinja Vas, at her parents’ estate where the former building for drying of hops was adapted for living.

Marianne died in 1994 in Celje and she is buried along her husband Raoul, who passed away a few years before in Ljubljana, in the Kopše family grave at the cemetery in Žalec, Slovenia.

Recipient of Brunei decorations
  • Order of Loyalty to the State of Brunei (Darjah Setia Negara Brunei Yang Amat Bahagia): 1st Class (Datin Seri Setia - P.S.N.B. - 1976) [5] and 2nd Class (Datin Setia - D.S.N.B.)
  • Order of Merit of Brunei (Darjah Paduka Sri Laila Jasa Yang Amat Berjasa): 2. Class (Datin Seri Laila Jasa - D.S.L.J. - 1967) [6]
  • Order of the Crown of Brunei (Darjah Seri Paduka Mahkota Brunei Yang Amat Mulia): 1st Class (Datin Seri Paduka - S.P.M.B. - 1970) [7] and 3rd Class (Companion - S.M.B. - 1964) [8]
  • Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Medal: (Pingat Omar Ali Saifuddin - P.O.A.S. - 1960) [3]
  • Order of Loyalty to the State of Brunei, 1st Class (Dato Seri Setia)
  • Order of Loyalty to the State of Brunei, 2nd Class (Dato Setia)
  • Order of the Crown of Brunei, 1st Class (Dato Seri Paduka)
  • Order of the Crown of Brunei, 3rd Class (Companion)
  • Order of Merit of Brunei, 2nd Class (Dato Seri Laila Jasa)
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References
  1. 1940-1946 - Quarterly Army Lists (Second Series), July 1940-December 1950
  2. A. V. M. Horton, The development of Brunei during the British residential era, 1906-1959: a sultanate regenerated. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Hull, 1985, p. 208
  3. BRUNEI (the abode of peace), Vol. 1, No. 9, p. 9, November 1960
  4. Bob Reece. "The little sultan": Ahmad Tajuddin II of Brunei, Gerard MacBryan, and Malcolm Macdonald, Borneo Research Bulletin, Vol. 40, 2009
  5. Pelita Brunei, 21 July 1976, p. 5
  6. Pelita Brunei, 27 September 1967, p. 7
  7. Pelita Brunei, 12 August 1970, p. 8
  8. Pelita Brunei, 16 September 1964, p. 1
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