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Thank you all for your kind replies. I don't think it is Shakespeare, we tried that but his portraits are quite different when close comparison is made and particularly Shakespeare seems to have had a shaved forehead. All of the portraits of Richard the Lionheart show him bearded and not really similar. Our founder was a Colonel in the days of cavalry. We are a club of the survivors of an ancient and illustrious Yeomanry regiment killed off by merger years ago (all ex armoured - "old tankmen"). The carving may have been with the regiment for a couple of hundred years or more but may be older than that as our regiment sprang from an earlier unit - it came with the regimental silver when that was handed to us for safe keeping. It is known to us as "Sir Francis Drake" as it was identified as such by a very persistent and screechy one woman Antiques Roadshow some years ago, but of course it is not. All further suggestions will be most welcome.