By royal command

He has landed the contract to stitch medals to mark the event on to the uniforms of servicemen and women.

The £500,000 deal with the Ministry of Defence has transformed his modest company. Now he is searching for extra employees to cope with the work.

Michael's Tailoring, based at Okus Industrial Estate, will be stitching on thousands of medal ribbons for the military across Wiltshire and the West. The order more than doubles the contracts on his books. "I'm absolutely delighted," he said. "It is a bit of good news for the small businessman."

The Queen's Jubilee Medal is going to be issued to all military personnel on April 5, provided they have five years' service.

All previous medals will have to be stripped down and remounted with the new medal.

This means that every medal worn today by military personnel with five years or more service has to be remounted, including all miniature medals worn by officers and Warrant Officers.

Uniforms carry ribbons for every medal worn, so again all ribbons are removed and re-sewn back onto the uniforms.

Michael's contract includes:

The Royal Military College at Shrivenham, which includes the new Joint Services, which opened this year.

The Territorial Army Centre in Swindon and TA centres in Bristol and Gloucester, Minerva House in Swindon.

The Royal Logistic Corps in South Cerney and the TA centre in Cirencester.

The Royal Signals at Colerne in Bath and the Combined Headquarters in Corsham.

Michael, 62, who has had the business for 20 years, has a fulltime staff of 14.

But he wants to take on six evening staff to fulfill the contract, which needs to be completed by November 11, 2002.

Army work formerly done in-house but now contracted out - makes up 20 per cent of his business, which takes on alteration work of all kinds.

Michael, who lives in Peatmoor, added: "I estimate the cost of doing this Army work to be in the region of £500,000 which is a very large amount for a small local tailoring firm like mine.

"I was competing for this contract with some large companies, but the MoD decided to stick with me.

"Large rolls of ribbon have been delivered to me. I do not know exactly how many medals we will be working with, but it will run into thousands."

It has been reported that the award has caused some service noses to be put out.

Some senior officers are unhappy that personnel like the ones with under five years service are not included in the award, particularly the ones who served in Kosova.

Other services such as the police and fire service have also been left out when in fact they were awarded the Silver Jubilee Medal back in 1977.

But Home Secretary Jack Straw said the medal was a central part of the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations.

The cost of creating the medal will be £3m. It will include the Queen's armorial shield and motto on one side with the observe inspired by Pietro Annigoni's depiction of a youthful and beautiful Queen painted in 1955.

Mr Straw said: "The Jubilee will be a special and joyous occasion in the history of our nation and the Golden Jubilee Medal will form an important par of the celebrations.

"The medal follows a tradition set as far back as 1887 when the nation marked Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in a similar way."

www.goldenjubilee.gov.uk