Briton helps Thai.

The Asian financial crisis left Thailand's economy in peril. When Barbara Chidell of Britain heard about this, she wanted to do something to help. She heard of a body called Thai Helps Thai, where Thai ladies were giving in their gold jewellery to be melted down and used to help revive the country's economy. She sent some of her most precious possessions, two gold coins and a gold locket which had been given to her by the Queen of Thailand.

Mrs Chidell has been a friend of the Thai royal family since her college years in Oxford some 70 years ago, when she befriended Princess Noy of Chandaburi, the first Thai woman to go to university. She has met many members of the royal family and visited Thailand a number of times with her late husband. During a visit in 1979 the Queen gave them each a gold coin and a gold locket commemorating the King's 60th birthday.

A friend in Thailand took the coins and the locket to the Thai Army Committee of the Thai Helps Thai project and explained Mrs Chidell's act of generosity and concern for the country. A Major General who had dropped in to supervise the activity exclaimed, `Oh, what a precious heart your friend has to give away these valuable gifts. This is a really unusual case.'

Unlike Mrs Chidell's gold coins, the Thai baht does not have the King's head embossed on it. Instead of melting down the coins the Major General arranged to pay their equivalent in baht to the project, so that the coins and locket themselves can be exhibited in the Thai military museum. Mrs Chidell also received a certificate of appreciation from the Commander in Chief of the Royal Thai Army honouring her assistance to the nation.