thanks, i seem to be getting into another interesting area of collecting here. i'll have to have a good look at the scabbard when it arrives. the photo i have is not the most informative, but i do not see any method of carry, belt loops or ring or any other, so it may have been a later one just to cover the blade for the last owner.
as it's the UK, i like to think that it came from the estate of a british soldier who picked it up from it's original owner who no longer needed it, on the omdurman plains outside khartoum on the 2nd of september 1898....
Volley by Ranks...........