I have to agree that it seems to be a huge leap of faith to get from what can be seen on this item to your researched "Colonel James Reed".
If you extrapolate the curvature of the letters at the top, then I would think you are looking at something which was originally this kind of size, with a second word after 'JAMES' that was longer than 'REED' would have been... unless it's a name that also includes an initial for a middle name:
View attachment 1853913
I also wonder why there is a full stop (period) after 'JAMES'. The other thing that strikes me is that the middle line appears to say "REG. N...." which I would assume is for "Registration Number XXX". Why would that be?