By Kim O’Hare
Valentine, (in Latin : Valentinus), pope for thirty or forty days in 827, was a Roman by birth, and, according to the Liber Pontificalis, was first made a deacon by Paschal I (817-824). Nothing further is known of Valentine’s history.
Saint Valentine or Saint Valentinus refers to one of at least three martyred saints of ancient Rome.
The feast of St. Valentine was first decreed in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentine among those “... whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God”.
The creation of the feast for such dimly conceived figures may have been an attempt to supersede the pagan holiday of Lupercalia that was still being celebrated in fifth century Rome, on 15th February. As Gelasius implied, nothing is known about the lives of any of these martyrs.
Many of the current legends surrounding them were invented in the late Middle Ages in France and England, when the feast day of 14th February became associated with romantic love.
Here are some more notable Valentines:
Alfred Louis Valentine (28th April, 1930 – 11th May 2004) was a West Indian cricketer in the 1950s and 1960s. He is most famous for his performance in the West Indies’ 1950 tour of England, which was immortalised in the Victory Calypso. Valentine did not impress in the first few matches of the tour, and was not certain to be in the Test team, until in the final warm-up match before the Tests he took 8 for 26 and 5 for 41 as the West Indies beat Lancashire by an innings and 220 runs /
Anthony Valentine (born 1939, Blackburn, Lancashire) is a British actor, best remembered for his roles on television, most notably the titular Raffles for ITV, the sinister SS officer Major Mohn in the BBC drama Colditz and the psychopathic Toby Meres in the series Callan. He is also a noted theatre actor, appearing in many West End plays over the years, such as No Sex Please, We’re British, Sleuth, Half a Sixpence and Art.
Aubrey Valentine was a fictional character in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders. He was played by Joseph Marcell.
Rebecca “Beka” B. Valentine is a fictional character in the television series Andromeda, played by Lisa Ryder. Beka is human but has never lived on a planet, having been born on the salvage ship which had been built by her drug-addict, cargo-running father, Ignatius Valentine.
Brian Valentine is an American technology executive, best known for his tenure as a senior vice president at Microsoft Corporation. He was responsible for overseeing the development of Windows 2000 and Windows XP. In September, 2006, Valentine left Microsoft to take a position at Amazon.com.
Bryan Herbert Valentine (born 1908, Blackheath, London, died, 1983,) was an English cricketer who played in 7 Tests from 1933 to 1939.
Kanesha Nichole Brooks (born, 1984 in Houston, Texas), better known as Brooke Valentine, is an American R&B singer-songwriter. She is known for her athletic physique. She started her musical career as a member of the female group Best Kept Secret.
Carl Valentine (born 1958 in Manchester) is a former professional soccer player and coach who has had a long association with soccer in the Vancouver area of Canada. Valentine had a long, successful playing career from the late 1970s to the late 1990s with several clubs, notably the Vancouver Whitecaps of the North American Soccer League, Oldham Athletic, West Bromwich Albion of the Football League. Initially hoping to be selected to play for England at some point, Valentine passed on an offer to play for Canada at the 1984 Summer Olympics. He decided in 1985 however to declare his allegiance to his new home country and played for Canada in qualifying for Mexico ‘86. Despite a bad case of influenza, Valentine famously assisted on both goals (with corner kicks) Canada scored to defeat Honduras 2-1 to advance to the finals for the first (and only) time. Valentine currently coaches youth soccer in North Vancouver.
Dave Valentine was a rugby league player for Huddersfield in the Super League, his position of choice was loose forward. Valentine also represented Great Britain on many occasions, playing in one World Cup in 1954. He was already somewhat of a British rugby hero before making his inaugural World Cup debut, having already been capped eleven times, played in Ashes winning sides in both 1948 as well as 1952 along with winning a vast array of honours playing for Huddersfield. Valentine had also previously played professional rugby union and had been capped on several occasions by Scotland.
Dick Valentine was a fictional radio call-in show host played by actor and comic Richard Belzer on segments of the National Lampoon Radio Hour, aired on some 600 US radio stations between 1973 and 1975.
Dickie Valentine (born Richard Bryce, 1929 in London ) was a popular singer in the 1950s. He was voted the Top UK Male Vocalist while singing with the Ted Heath Orchestra, and after going solo in 1954. Although his fame receded during the 1960s, he remained a popular live performer until his death in a car crash in 1971.
Donald T. “Don” Valentine is an influential venture capitalist. He concentrates on technology companies in the United States. He has been called the “grandfather of Silicon Valley venture capital”. He is credited with playing a key role in the formation of a number of industries such as semiconductors, personal computers, personal computer software, digital entertainment and networking.
Hilton Stewart Paterson Valentine (born 1943 in North Shields, Northumberland,) is a British musician, who was an original guitarist in the band The Animals. Valentine is credited with the instantly recognizable guitar intro of the Animals’ “House of the Rising Sun”. He went on to play and record with them, until the band dissolved in September 1966. Valentine subsequently moved to California, recorded an unsuccessful solo album, returned to England, and over the years joined several Animals reunion incarnations. He released a new album, It’s Folk ‘n’ Skiffle, Mate! in 2004.
Josephine Clare Valentine, Baroness Valentine, known as Jo Valentine is a British politician, who sits on the boards of several organisations in the UK. In 2005 she was recommended by the House of Lords Appointments Commission to be made a life peer, and is now known as Baroness Valentine, of Putney in the London Borough of Wandsworth.
Judy Valentine (née Norma Baker), American singer and actress. Born 1924 in Boston, Massachusetts. While still a teenager, Valentine began singing professionally in local nightclubs. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s she recorded a series of hits including “I’m A Little Teapot”.
Penny Valentine (13th February, 1943 – 9th January, 2003) was a British music journalist, rock critic, and occasional television personality, probably best known as a regular on Juke Box Jury in the mid-1960s, in which she established her fame. As a young woman, she also wrote articles for then-current Swinging London. She also wrote for Record Mirror for many years. She also wrote a biography of Dusty Springfield, with whom she was intimately involved.
Valentine Dencausse (1871-1954) was probably the most famous chiromancer (palm reader) in Paris during the first half of the twentieth century, under the name of “Madame Fraya”. She would use a person’s hand and handwriting to predict his/her future. Her clients included important French artists and politicians of the time, to whom she reportedly predicted World War I and the defeat of Germany. She was subsequently called into the French Ministry of War, where she assured the government that the marching German troops would not reach Paris (they were in fact stopped at the First Battle of the Marne).
