Talk:Valentine Ackland

Second middle name
I edited the article today to reflect the fact that various sources list Ackland's second middle name not as 'Valentine' but as Macrory (or, as explained below, some variation thereof), her mother's maiden name. Her birth record, as transcribed on FreeBMD.org.uk, lists her name as 'Mary Kathleen M. Ackland'. The 1911 census record for the family lists her as 'Mary Kathleen Macrovey Ackland', which is most likely a simple error (perhaps due to handwriting), given that the 1897 record for the marriage of her parents gives her mother's name as 'Ruth Kathleen Macrory', for which 'McCrory' (given in various sources as Valentine Ackland's second middle name) would be an understandable alternative but 'Macrovey' would not.

'The diaries of Sylvia Townsend Warner', published in 1994 and edited by Claire Harman, has a footnote on page 32 specifying that 'her baptismal name was Mary Kathleen Macrory Ackland'; however, in 1982's 'Letters' edited by William Maxwell, Warner herself, on page 45, includes in a letter the instruction that 'if the Foreign Office should ring up tomorrow to ask if Valentine Ackland and Mary Kathleen McCrory Ackland are the same, you will assure them that they are, and that Valentine is a pen name'. One might assume that of all the sources, Warner would be perhaps the most reliable due to the intimacy of her relationship with Ackland, but it's also of course possible that she erred and that the spelling was 'Macrory'. There are more sources supporting the 'McCrory' spelling than 'Macrory'; the only factor against this is that her mother's maiden name was spelled 'Macrory' on her marriage record, which might very well be an error due to the official's assumption as to the correct spelling. I thought I should put this here just to present the facts as they appear. Thanks for reading!

Ashiyura (talk) 18:39, 27 May 2012 (UTC)

BBC drama programme, 27 May 2019
Comrade Ackland and I (see: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0005f43)

Contributor having a close connection with the subject.
Good morning all, The contributor is me, Jay Wordsworth. This has come up because I first gnorantly chose Jay Ackland as a user name. I've since changed it to Wordworth. But I can't seem to make the opening template/warning go away. I've no connection at all the Valentine Ackland, other admiring her work. thanks for the help. --Jay Wordsworth (talk) 13:26, 14 November 2019 (UTC) Jay
 * Wikipedia policy provides for the tagging of contributions by the subject of an article, particularly if made by the subject's ghost. If you wish to discuss the application of this policy, please open a request at Tags: Self-reflexive contributions (post mortem). Thanks.

I guess I"m too stupid to live, but I can't figure out how to get rid of this /* Contributor having a close connection with the subject. */ As I stated above, I picked a bad alias. I'm not in any was related to Ackland, and have changed my moniker. Jay Wordsworth (talk) 20:41, 31 July 2020 (UTC) Jay Wordsworth