Talk:Edwin Alderson

GA Review: On hold
I have reviewed this article according to the requirements of the GA criteria and have put the article on hold at this time. Address the following issues within seven days and I'll pass the article:
 * 1) In the infobox, mention in the caption that the image was taken at the time of WWI.
 * Done. Date given.


 * 1) "His experience with mounted infantry made him perfect for this role as in the Boer guerillas..." Reword perfect, it may be seen as POV; however, if it is stated in a source then put it in quotation marks and add an inline citation directly after the sentence.
 * Changed to "ideal".


 * 1) "When Hughes' representative in England, Colonel John Wallace Carson, secured preferential accommodation for the Canadian soldiers at the expense of a British brigade, Alderson refused the barracks and in doing so, made both Carson and Hughes into determined enemies; Carson wrote to the Canadian Prime Minister Robert Laird Borden that Alderson "does not treat our men with a firm iron hand covered with the velvet glove which their special temperaments require"." Instead of using the semicolon, I think it would be best to split it into two sentences as it is already long enough as it is.
 * Done.


 * 1) "In addition to his personal failings however, the Ross rifles had proven almost useless in battle and Alderson's officer corps had performed poorly, in particular Brigadier-General Garnet Burk Hughes, Sam Hughes' son." Add an inline citation for this. If it is from the same source at the end of the paragraph, just readd it again to the end of this sentence as well.
 * Sourced.


 * 1) "Hughes was furious at Alderson's defiance and sent 281 letters to senior military figures backing the Ross and attacking Alderson's character." Add an inline citation.
 * Sourced.


 * 1) "In September 1916, Alderson became Inspector of Infantry in the British Army, a position he retained until 1920, when he retired from active service aged 61." Consider rewording "aged 61" to "at the age of 61" unless this is common British English grammar.
 * I think both are correct, changed to "at the age of".


 * 1) "...commenting to a friend that "Canadian politics has been too strong for us"." Again, add the inline citation after this statement.
 * Sourced.


 * 1) Consider adding an image of a Ross rifle and/or Lee-Enfield for the article.
 * Added images of both for comparison, images are best avaliable on Wikipedia at the moment.

These should be for the most part easy to fix, and if addressed within seven days, I will pass the article. If you have any questions or when you are done, let me know on my talk page and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. --Nehrams2020 (talk) 07:30, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Thankyou for your review, I think I have addressed all the issues above, let me know if there are still problems. Regards, --Jackyd101 (talk) 15:45, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

GA passed
Since the above issues were addressed, I have passed this article as a good article according to the requirements of the GA criteria. Continue to improve the article, making sure that all new information is properly sourced. Also, to anyone that is reading this review, please consider reviewing an article or two at WP:GAN to help with the large backlog. Instructions can be found here. Keep up the good work, and I hope that you continue to bring articles up to Good Article status. If you have any further questions about this review, let me know on my talk page and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. I have updated the article history to reflect this review. Happy editing! --Nehrams2020 (talk) 20:49, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Sam Hughes - not strictly Alderson's 'superior'
In the reference to the early stage of Alderson's dealings with Hughes over the state of the Canadian troops on arrival in England, Hughes is described as "his [Alderson's] superior". I have replaced the words with "their [the Canadians'] minister" because Alderson was not a Canadian subject and was not under Hughes' command; he was appointed by the British War Secretary Lord Kitchener and (as detailed in Nicholson's history of the Canadian Expeditionary Force), he was under command of the GOC British Southern Command when in England. In France/Belgium he and his troops were under the command of the BEF, headed by Sir John French, later Douglas Haig.Cloptonson (talk) 19:30, 3 June 2014 (UTC)


 * It is also for the same consideration (his being a British Army officer over Canadians) that I have deleted him from among the Category of "Canadian generals".Cloptonson (talk) 21:45, 5 July 2014 (UTC)

Photo caption
I have narrowed the years of the photo used in the infobox from "c.1910-1915" to "c.1910". I have seen Alderson's medals in the Royal West Kent Regimental Museum at Maidstone, which included the 1911 Delhi Durbar Medal (of almost identical appearance to the Coronation Medal of same year) - which is absent from the photo as not having yet been awarded. From left to right the decorations in the picture are: (right breast) Royal Humane Society Medal, (left breast) the CB, 1902 Coronation Medal, campaign medals for Anglo-Egyptian War and Mashonaland, Queen's and King's South Africa Medals and Khedive's Star for service in Egypt and Sudan.Cloptonson (talk) 19:41, 12 September 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080212001754/http://www.c-and-e-museum.org/chap3_e1.htm to http://www.c-and-e-museum.org/chap3_e1.htm
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080212001754/http://www.c-and-e-museum.org/chap3_e1.htm to http://www.c-and-e-museum.org/chap3_e1.htm

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Citation need (section Battle of the St Eloi Craters)
I agree with the citation need put against the sentence stating:

Both officers were supporters of Sam Hughes, who made it clear in no uncertain terms to the British Expeditionary Force's Commander-in-Chief, General Sir Douglas Haig, that if Turner was dismissed then the British Government could no longer rely on Canadian support.

This needs checking against what has been published on the political background of the crisis which led to Alderson's removal. In the DCB, the indication is that it was Sir Max Aitken - later Lord Beaverbrook, Hughes-appointed Canadian government representative at BEF HQ, who directly communicated to Haig the political feelings about losing Turner. (Hughes was not at the front, which he did visit, at that point.) From at least one Beaverbrook biography, he clearly liked to credit himself with being instrumental in Alderson's removal. It is therefore questionable if Hughes actually made such a statement, whose tone would have verged on political blackmail, and whether it was referring to Canadian support to the BEF or to Britain's war effort as a whole. There is also an ambiguity in this sentence as it may not be clear whether the "who made it clear etc" refers to Hughes, or to the two generals (if they had said that, then in terms of military discipline it would have been an out-of-order speech for them to make to their immediate commander.Cloptonson (talk) 10:34, 27 July 2019 (UTC)