Talk:Alec John Dawson

Hi, I've been doing some research on Alec John Dawson and was very pleased to find that he has now acquired a Wikipaedia entry! There is at least one inaccuracy though - Dawson died not in 1952 but on 3 February 1951 in Hastings, Sussex (see London 'Times', 7 Feb 1951, for his obituary). I was also disappointed not to see a reference in the main text to 'Finn The Wolfhound', since that's undoubtedly his best known book.

I'd be pleased to correct the entry and flesh it out with details of his wartime career, marriage, etc etc, but am a newcomer to Wikipaedia - have just joined to write this - so wondered if Green Cardamom or someone else would be prepared to check what I wrote before posting?

Many thanks

Sun-in-splendour Sun-in-splendour (talk) 15:02, 14 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Hello Sun-in-splendour, good to meet you, please do jump in. I really know nothing about AJD other than a short encyclopedia article in John Sutherland's book on Victorian fiction (which only covers up to 1900) is the extent of my knowledge. I was thinking of reading some of his work, if you had any suggestion where to start. I'll be happy to help you out with anything Wikipedia related. Do you have a list of his published works, a good place to begin. Green Cardamom (talk) 22:47, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

Thank you, Green Cardamom! Yes I do have a list of his published works - I think it's 35 books altogether, including quite a lot of non-fiction - travel books, dog books (he bred Irish wolfhounds and bloodhounds) and much from his busy career during World War I in the real-life MI7, writing military propaganda. So depending on your tastes you have plenty of potential reading matter to choose from. Of his fiction Project Gutenberg has 'The Message', a pre-WW1 novel whipping up fears of German invasion (a popular genre at the time, other contributors included Saki and P G Wodehouse!) and 'Jan Son of Finn' but not yet 'Finn the Wolfhound' (I'm working on that...). I'll get cracking on a lengthened entry asap.Sun-in-splendour (talk) 08:07, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

I've put my draft for an expanded article for Dawson on my userpage - comments from Green Cardamom and anyone else are welcome! Thanks Sun-in-splendour (talk) 16:43, 27 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Sun-in-splendour, it's looks very good like you've put a lot of work into it - there are a few syntax changes such as adding a "*" in front of each of the books and sources so it has bullets (like in external links). I am about 24 hrs away from surgery so won't be able to help as I focus on health but hope to return in a week or two. Suggest go ahead and copy it over so it's the new article. Green Cardamom (talk) 20:32, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Thank you Green Cardamom, and all good wishes for a speedy recovery from your surgery! I've updated the article, putting in the bullet points as you suggested and also adding in the photo of Dawson that I mentioned. Do please let me have any further comments once you're back! Sun-in-splendour (talk) 15:51, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Original research
User:Sun-in-splendour, not sure if you are still around, I was doing some citation cleanup/maintenance and noticed the entire marriage section Alec_John_Dawson is entirely WP:OR based on primary sources and original conjectures. I think the entire section needs to be removed. Maybe there is a new book about him now or something that could replace it? See OR and WP:PRIMARY. -- Green  C  06:18, 14 November 2023 (UTC)


 * GreenC, I've just spotted this and logged back in to reply. Unfortunately I can't help; the extra information about Dawson's marriage, etc., was added not by me but subsequently by a user called Philjohnson, looking at the article's history. I assume this was from his own personal research, there being no new publications about Dawson out there to my knowledge. Suggest therefore you check in next with him. Personally I would have thought the new information worth retaining, as helping to round out this rather elusive literary figure. Best wishes, Sun-in-splendour. Sun-in-splendour (talk) 17:46, 10 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Ah I see thanks for correcting who added that material. User:Philjohnson has not edited WP for 7 years. I can live with it for now. I'll leave tag per my concerns above and hope someone can find better secondary sourcing in time. -- Green  C  17:58, 10 March 2024 (UTC)