A tiny Worcestershire firm has beaten off worldwide competition to win the UK's biggest medals contract since the First World War - to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

Bromsgrove-based Worcestershire Medal Services have been awarded the £7 million order to supply medals to the armed forces, emergency services, prison staff and others celebrating next year's anniversary of the Queen's 60 years on the throne.

And all the medals will be made in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter, with city-based Gladman and Norman working with two neighbouring firms - Toye, Kenning and Spencer and Thomas Fattorini - to supply 450,000 medals from February 6 next year, the anniversary of the Queen's accession."

Gladman and Norman owner Phil McDermott, who set up Worcestershire Medal Services with just £120 in 1988, said: “These medals will be worn from everyone from the Duke of Edinburgh down to the youngest soldier in the Army. It’s a fabulous story for the Jewellery Quarter.

“All the medals, the packaging and the ribbons will be made in the West Midlands and all the manufacturing will be in the Jewellery Quarter.

“There was competition from overseas and we would have been up against the Royal Mint, who are massive. This is real David and Goliath stuff; it’s the biggest medals contract that has been put out by the Government since the end of the First World War.

“It’s brilliant for Birmingham and for the Jewellery Quarter in particular. This has secured the jobs of the people here for the foreseeable future.

“I believe the medals should be made in the UK for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and I can’t think of a better place than the Jewellery Quarter.”

Surviving holders of the Victoria Cross and George Cross and members of the Royal Household will also be eligible for the Diamond Jubilee medal.

Worcestershire Medal Services were awarded a Royal Warrant in January 2008.