Carved walking stick ‘comes home’Rodney Eatwell donated the carved walking stick of World War One rifleman Samuel Frickleton VC to Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn, on Friday. Mr Frickleton, who came from a Scottish coalmining family living in Blackball, won the Victoria Cross for his bravery in an attack on Messines, Belgium, in 1917. He received the walking stick from the Maori Battalion about 1920. Mr Eatwell became good friends with the elderly Mr Frickleton in Wellington, and inherited the walking stick after his death. He said he decided to present it to the mayor because of his support of the community during the Pike River Mine disaster. “We’re bringing it home,” he said.