What is the "House of Commons Shield" Award?

While spelunking through the caverns of Wikipedia, I came across a biography which contained this curious claim:

She was the youngest and first woman to receive a British House of Commons Shield.

That sounds like a fantastic achievement! But, and I hate to bring fact-checking to an argument, what is it?

Looking around the web, I could only find three mentions of this no-doubt prestigious award.

1. A newspaper clipping of a puff-piece which made the same claim about the same person.
2. Reference to shields which are erected in memory to MPs who were killed in service.
3. A religious leader who claimed to have received the same award.

If this is a well-regarded way to recognise and honour people, shouldn't there be more about it online? But, perhaps, not everything to do with our democracy is available on the web. To the FOI machine, Robin!

I wrote to the House of Commons to see if they could shed some light on the matter.

As ever, their Freedom of Information team wrote back quickly:

In the first instance, please note that we are not aware of a “House of Commons Shield” award, and this is not something supplied by or handled the House of Commons Administration. However, from publicly available resources our understanding is that this was an award which has been supplied in the past, and we believe this may have been handled by individual MPs themselves as opposed to the House Administration. We have therefore checked with the following teams within the House Administration to see if they held any information within the scope of your request:

• The Speaker’s Office, who hold details of official awards provided by the House Administration, as well as those nominated for formal Honours.
• It is possible that these awards were provided by at a sponsored event organised by MPs, so we have checked with the House’s Events’ team on this.
• It is also possible that these awards were provided at room bookings made by MPs, so we have checked with the House’s Access & Services team on this also.

However, these teams have confirmed that they do not hold any information regarding this award. We therefore hold no information within the scope of your request.

They suggested that I contact any MPs who might have handed out the award. There was only one (former) MP I could find so I dropped them a polite email asking WTAF was going on.

Please can help me solve a small mystery? I'm trying to find out more information about an award called "The House of Commons Shield".

I understand that you presented the award to [redacted] in 2009. I'd like to understand a little more about what the award is.

The House of Commons have told me that this isn't an official award as such and they suggested I contact MPs who may have presented it.

A few people claim to have been given this award but you are the only named person I can find who has presented it.

Is "The House of Commons Shield" a specific award that MPs can present? Is it a recognised term? Are there any criteria used when judging who should get it? Or is it a piece of memorabilia which has been mistakenly claimed as an official trophy?

Any assistance in figuring this out would be gratefully received.

Sadly - but predictably - they elected not to enter into correspondence with me.

If you have any information about what the "House of Commons Shield" award is - please drop a note in the comments.