TOPIC:

Many years ago, a friend departing for the greener pastures of Australia gave me an unusual gift. It is a 25 cm long section from a hardwood walking stick, which lacks its cap, but which has in place a gold collar and ferrule. The latter is split by having been forced over a thicker part of the shaft than the end for which it was designed

This oddity is remarkable only for the inscriptions on the collar and ferrule. They are:
Collar - Presented by LADY VALLENTIN. Won by Lt P L Lovelace.
Ferrule - S A L H. V.H.Sqd. SPORTS. ??/2/03.

Questions arise:

Who was Lady Vallentin? Does she have a connection to Major J M Vallentin, Somerset Light Infantry, who has often featured on this forum?
Lt P L Lovelace may have been the man listed on Meurig's Boer War Record as a member of the Imperial Yeomanry.
The SALH must be the South African Light Horse, but I do not know how to interpret the V.H Squadron.

In the photo below I have used .303 cartridge cases from Wagon Hill for scale. (Alternative scale options were: My plastic ruler which has seen better days; a matchbox - they seem not to be manufactured anymore; and a coin, which would have been useless, since, being nearly worthless, foreigners would be unfamiliar with them.)

Brett

Wasn't there a Vallentine's Horse - V.H. - which could account for Lady Valentine and the initials connection?

Rory
You could well be right. I see there is (also) a record of Vallentin's Heidelberg Volunteers. Perhaps the unit commanded by Vallentin was a squadron within the SALH, and the post-war sports meeting was to commemorate the dead Major Vallentin.
Regards
Brett