Talk:Thomas Highgate

Gatekeeper ?

gamekeeper is it a typo ? ThePro (talk) 15:02, 8 September 2016 (UTC)

Only son with two brothers?

Background [Born the only son of a farm labourer...]

Memorial [His mother, who lived in Sidcup, Kent, lost three sons in the war...]

It might be that his father was not the father of the brothers, or there might be a mistake in here. MaxMad (talk) 17:02, 18 October 2017 (UTC)

Yes, I noticed that, too. Have you learned anything in the four years since you posted? Gamle Kvitrafn (talk) 21:54, 21 October 2021 (UTC)

GA Review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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This review is transcluded from Talk:Thomas Highgate/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Sammi Brie (talk · contribs) 02:33, 29 January 2023 (UTC)

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)
It is reasonably well written. a (prose, spelling, and grammar): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists): It is factually accurate and verifiable. a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR): d (copyvio and plagiarism): It is broad in its coverage. a (major aspects): b (focused): It follows the neutral point of view policy. Fair representation without bias: It is stable. No edit wars, etc.: It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate. a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):
Overall: Pass/Fail:
· · ·

Most of the issues are minor copy edits. One reference is redundantly cited. And that's it. 7-day hold to Unexpectedlydian; ping me when done. Sammi Brie (she/her • t • c) 02:53, 29 January 2023 (UTC)

Hi @Sammi Brie, thanks for the review! I have responded to everything below. Just one question about title case. Do let me know if you need anything else. Unexpectedlydian^♯4talk^‽ 14:52, 29 January 2023 (UTC)

@Unexpectedlydian I tend to preserve the original casing of references unless all caps. Sammi Brie (she/her • t • c) 17:30, 29 January 2023 (UTC)

Hi @Sammi Brie, thanks - I have changed those citations now to the original case. Unexpectedlydian^♯4talk^‽ 13:27, 1 February 2023 (UTC)

Copy changes

Lead

• Remove comma after "during World War I". User:Sammi Brie/Commas in sentences (CinS)
  • Done.

Early life

• Consider styling "World War One" as "World War I" for consistency
  • Done.

First World War

• 40,000 British soldiers fought in the battle and 7,800 were killed in the battle Add a comma after the first "in the battle" and remove the second one.
  • Thanks, done.
• Find and replace the three times in the article where soldier is misspelled "solider".
  • Oops! Done.
• Add a comma after "said to the gatekeeper"
  • Done.

• In court, Highgate said that he remembered walking around, entering the farm, lying down in a civilian house, putting on civilian clothes, but did not recall much else. Add a comma before "putting" and remove the one after "clothes"
  • Done.
• There were other instances of soldiers looting, travelling with civilians, and one allegation of rape. Not the most consistent list. Maybe There were other instances of soldiers looting and travelling with civilians, as well as one allegation of rape.
  • Fixed.
• Highgate was accused of desertion and a Field General Court-Martial was arranged a few hours after he was discovered in the farm house. Comma after "desertion" (CinS)
  • Done.

Sourcing and spot checks

Earwig flags a few unavoidable formulations and quotes from Putkowski. No issue here.

• I notice that several reference titles have been converted to title case when the original titles were in sentence case. Is there a reason for this?
  • No, to be honest I don't know the rules. I can change the relevant ones back to sentence case if needed?
• The BBC News article "Shot at dawn, pardoned 90 years on" is separately cited twice (ref 11 and 20). Consolidate.
  • Fixed.

Five references were chosen for random spot checks: with no issues.

• 7: The National Archives reference is used nine different times with no issue: Y
  • Memory loss
  • Good worker
  • BEF retreat
  • Found in civilian clothes without a rifle
  • Lack of memory of the incident
  • "Wider disciplinary concerns"
  • Bedfordshire executioners
  • 7:07 time of death
  • Cheshire and Dorset witnesses
• 14: Johnson 2015 p. 109 includes the "should be killed as quickly as possible" line. Y
• 16: British Legion opposition. (Consider clipping the full article!) Y
• 17: Split in the Royal British Legion. Y
• 19: Decision to wait by councilors. Y

Encouragement: Archive references with IABot (which is down right now).

• Thanks, I need to do that to multiple articles when it's back up.

Images

There are two images, both in a gallery at the end of the last section, of the war memorials in Shoreham and Sidcup. They are both under CC licenses. Alt text is supplied by the template for the former and specifically for the latter.

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Bruxton (talk) 00:43, 18 March 2023 (UTC)

(

• Comment or view
• Article history

)

• ... that Thomas Highgate was the first British soldier to be convicted of desertion and executed by firing squad? Source: Johnson, David (2015). Executed at Dawn: British Firing Squads on the Western Front 1914-1918. United Kingdom: The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7509-5917-9. Page 19
  • Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Nawrahta of Salin

Improved to Good Article status by Unexpectedlydian (talk). Nominated by Onegreatjoke (talk) at 17:58, 6 February 2023 (UTC). Note: As of October 2022, all changes made to promoted hooks will be logged by a bot. The log for this nomination can be found at Template talk:Did you know nominations/Thomas Highgate, so please watch a successfully closed nomination until the hook appears on the Main Page.

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Adequate sourcing: Neutral: Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
Cited: Interesting:

QPQ: Done.

Overall: A good article, passes earwig and is adequately sourced. No close paraphrasing was found, and the hook is interesting, cited inline, and verified. QPQ done. Nom good to go. Pseud 14 (talk) 21:52, 8 February 2023 (UTC)

@Unexpectedlydian, Onegreatjoke, and Pseud 14: The hook fact appears in the lede without a citation...then later in the body text, it's worded differently "Highgate was the first British soldier to be shot for cowardice on the Western Front" which doesn't exactly match. (That particular wording suggests another British soldier might have been shot for something else before him.) Could you please address this somehow? Maybe the hook could match that particular wording more closely (or vice versa)? Cielquiparle (talk) 15:49, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

@Cielquiparle and Pseud 14: I guess we can try "... that Thomas Highgate was the first British soldier to be executed for cowardice on the Western Front of World War I?" Onegreatjoke (talk) 20:22, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

@Onegreatjoke, Unexpectedlydian, and Pseud 14: I've now checked the source, and it doesn't say "cowardice" there, so I'm inclined to fix the wording of ALT1 as follows (and also revert to British terminology for the First World War):

• ALT1a: ... that Thomas Highgate was the first British soldier on the Western Front to be executed for desertion during the First World War?

Cielquiparle (talk) 11:38, 17 March 2023 (UTC)

@Cielquiparle: Thanks so much for picking this up. Sorry that this dropped off my radar. ALT1a looks good to me :) Unexpectedlydian^♯4talk^‽ 22:26, 17 March 2023 (UTC)