Talk:William Stephenson

Biography assessment rating comment
WikiProject Biography Summer 2007 Assessment Drive

Nearly a B.

The article may be improved by following the WikiProject Biography 11 easy steps to producing at least a B article. -- Yamara 17:39, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Discussion
There really is a need for a G-2 article (U.S. Military intelligence, or Army intellignece). Perhaps an X-2 also, which is now a subhead of OSS. nobs 17:02, 27 August 2005 (UTC)

The article cites a book by David Irving, who is a holocaust denier and not a credible source, even for a disputed account. I pointed this out in the article, but should it have simply been excised? Torquebrada (talk) 21:15, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

The Validity of "Naked Forgery" by Pat Buchanan
In the article "Naked Forgery", Patrick J. Buchanan claims that a British Agent named Ivar Bryce who worked under William Stephenson was responsible for the "map", that may have lead the United States into war with the Axis Powers during World War II.

Does anyone know if this is true or not? I have no idea whether to take an article written by Pat Buchanon as a valid journalistic truth.

The article can be read at

I think Buchanon's view of history is "Don't let facts get in the way of a good story", but as with every thing else Sir William did, we will probably never know for sure. --Niloc (talk) 00:07, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Buchanan is not the best historical source, but his statements about the forged maps are correct. Having said that much, the forged maps did not get the United States into the Second World War. Pearl Harbour did. Likewise, it was Germany and Italy that declared war on the United States, not the other way around. So through Buchanan is right about the forged maps of October 1941, his thesis that these forgeries brought the U.S into the war is nonsense. --A.S. Brown (talk) 03:43, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

The Dates?
The dates that you posted from 1896 (his birth) to 1916, dont match the age that you posted in this example, "In 1916 he volunteered for the 101st Regiment of the Canadian Army Engineers. He earned a field promotion to Sergeant in the trenches before he turned 19". If you add the math he is 20 not 19 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 134.71.48.208 (talk) 23:00, 27 February 2007 (UTC).

Some sort of silly sex and porn phrase in the beginning when talking about WW1. Probably a missed edit. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.74.200.208 (talk) 00:47, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Under the heading "Recognition and honours" is the notation that However since Stevenson died in 1989 this was somewhat later than "late in his life" and should either be modified as "posthumous" or the date needs to be corrected. Dick Kimball (talk) 16:08, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
 * "The Quiet Canadian" was formally recognized by his home and native land late in his life; William Stephenson was made a Companion of the Order of Canada on December 17, 1997...

I wonder how many contributors recognized "home and native land" as coming from the first line of Oh Canada, the Canadian national anthem. Dick Kimball (talk) 16:08, 14 November 2008 (UTC)


 * All the info collected by the Intrepid Society (many of it posted in public buildings, such as the library named for him in Winnipeg) indicate his day of birth was January 11, 1896. --Joshmaul (talk) 04:52, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 21:23, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Factual Error - photo of Sir William Stephenson
The head shot that was posted as being Sir William is, in fact, of one of his friends and compatriots, Wild Bill Donovan, the founder of the OSS and CIA. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.137.35.97 (talk) 19:25, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

If anybody knows what they are doing, the picture should be removed. I don't want to try:)--Niloc (talk) 01:12, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

A Man Called Intrepid
It seems to me that the information on this book needs to be beefed up. There are multiple sources that suggest that the book is largely a work of fiction, and vastly overstates Sir William's contribution. This is not to suggest that his contribution was not very signficant indeed -- merely that this particular account of his life is now considered to verge on fiction.--Wee Charlie (talk) 16:49, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Wee Charlie, you are quite right.
 * Please see:
 * "Amy Elizabeth Thorpe";
 * "Marian Rejewski", including "Allies informed" and "PC Bruno" sections;
 * "Talk:Cryptanalysis of the Enigma", "Polish cryptologists' escape from Poland" section;
 * "Talk:Vera Atkins", "First missions of the Second World War" section.
 * Best, Nihil novi (talk) 23:51, 26 December 2021 (UTC)

Clashing information
There were no fractional aerial victories awarded in World War I. http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/stephenson2.php shows he amassed an itemized list of 12 victories before being shot down by German ace Justus Grassmann. It also shows a birthdate of 12 January 1896.

Georgejdorner (talk) 03:56, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

I have never before removed cited info from an article, but the misstatement of aerial victories had to go. I was unable to double-check the reference given; it had no linkage, and it did not appear in internet search results. I did find the following regarding reliability of Chaz Bowyer's edition of RFC/RAF Communizues: http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/other-wwi-aviation/2535-rfc-communiques-chaz-bowyer-variant.html.

The moral of this story is, There were NO fractional awards of victories during World War I.

Georgejdorner (talk) 20:22, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

Inventor
Not much in the article about his career as an inventor. "Shown with his radio photo-play apparatus" - St. Petersburgh Times, 10 Sep, 1924. Same image, device now described as "wireless photography transmitter" in Getty Images library. Hakluyt bean (talk) 01:08, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Nationality
I'm kind of wondering here... while he was certainly a Canadian national, he was most notable before the advent of Canadian nationality and the fact that he was a British subject was what enabled him to serve in his position during World War II. I'm not suggesting we list his nationality as British, but perhaps we should clarify his nationality prior to 1947? -- MichiganCharms (talk) 23:22, 24 December 2010 (UTC)

French gold
I'm currently reading A Man Called Intrepid and, due to my many other readings of secret service type activities in WW II, questioned some of the material. So I was not surprised to read here that the book is sometimes described as a fictional account. However, a citation was needed for the possibility of stealing the French gold in the West Indies. So I added a citation from Stevenson's book, which has several pages on it. Thomas R. Fasulo (talk) 11:46, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

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A note regarding References
It could be mentioned that the first book listed in the 'References' section, The Quiet Canadian, by H(arford) Montgomery Hyde, was originally published in 1962. The edition mentioned here was published in 1989, the same year the author died. I think that the original publishing year should be added.

Furthermore, it is customary when listing a book which has a main title and a subtitle to separate the two with a colon [:]. Not doing so is both sloppy and can create confusion. Steinireyk (talk) 01:08, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

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