User:Motacilla

Mental health
I am autistic. I have had two nervous breakdowns and several other episodes of serious mental ill-health. For many years I was treated for depression, but my symptoms now seem closer to C-PTSD. I suffer frequent autistic meltdowns, acute anxiety and panic attacks.

My first nervous breakdown was caused by stalking, bullying and institutional victimisation. My second was caused by cyber-bullying and institutional victimisation. Electronic messages from threatening or potentially threatening sources can cause me to panic and can prevent me from opening or reading the messages for months or years on end. This includes messages on my Wikipedia talk page.

My vulnerable mental health makes it difficult to cope with editorial disagreements in which there is a shortage of respect or civility or logic or rationale. It does not take much for a tactless editor to cause me either an autistic meltdown, a panic attack or both.

Interests
My interests include wildlife, merchant shipping, canals, railways, motorcycles, history, architecture, modern languages and photography. My photography interests are mainly churches and other architectural history, modern buses and occasionally railways or inland waterways.

English local history
I used to contribute to many articles about places in England: most of them about villages and hamlets in and around Oxfordshire. However, at present I am not contributing to this subject area since another contributor edit warred against me, destroyed consistency across a group of articles and refused to reach a reasonable consensus.

I have created a few dozen new articles about individual villages, several about Victorian architects who worked on Oxfordshire churches and houses, a few about present and former railway stations in the county and a handful about parish churches that deserved fuller treatment than could be fitted into the main article for their villages. I have contributed many hundreds of photographs of churches and other historic buildings to Wikimedia Commons for use in these articles.

Transport
I tried to contribute to articles about current bus operators in and around Oxfordshire. At present I have given up working in this subject area after another editor edit warred against my contributions to Arriva Shires & Essex and Stagecoach in Oxfordshire.

My interest in railway history includes England, Ireland and the Near East. I have written or contributed to articles including Egyptian National Railways, Iraqi Republic Railways, Iraqi State Railways PC class, Palestine Railways, Palestine Railways H class, Palestine Railways P class and Portadown, Dungannon and Omagh Junction Railway.

I am interested in the history of merchant shipping. I have written or contributed to articles including Bow, McLachlan and Company, Burntisland Shipbuilding Company, Counties Ship Management, Eagle Oil and Shipping Company, P Henderson & Company, Holland America Line, Lamport and Holt, London & Overseas Freighters, Richardson, Duck and Company, White's Marine Engineering Company, SS Abessinia (1900), MV Abosso, SS Abukir, SS Adderstone, Admiral Karpfanger, SS Aguila (1909), SS Aguila (1916), SS Almeda Star, RMS Andes (1939), SS Anglo-Australian (1927), SS Anselm (1935), SS Antonios Chandris, SS Aquileia, HMT Aragon, SS Armenian, MV Asiatic Prince, RMS Asturias (1925), SS Avila Star, SS Avoceta, SS Aztec, SS Beemsterdijk, SS Belgian Prince, SS Belgenland (1914), SS Blommersdijk, SS Brazil (1928), SS Boniface (1928), SS Byron (1914), SS Cabo Machichaco, SS Calabria (1922), SS Cestrian, SS Clan Macalister (1930), SS Clan Macfadyen (1923), SS Corcovado, SS Costa Rica,  Cromartyshire, SS Cyclops (1906), MV Daronia, MV Deucalion, SS Devonian (1900), QSMV Dominion Monarch, MV Dromus (1938),  East Indian, RMS Ebro, Empire Mariner, SS Falaba, SS Flandre (1913), SS Frankenwald, SS Gasfire, SS Georgia (1890), SS Goentoer, SS Graf Waldersee, SS Har Zion, SS Healdton, SS Himalaya (1892), SS Huntingdon (1920), SS Infanta Isabel de Borbon, SS Justicia, SS Juvenal,  Katori Maru, SS Kaisar-I-Hind, SS Koningin der Nederlanden, RMS Lady Hawkins, SS La Bourgogne, SS Laurentic (1908), SS Laurentic (1927), SS Lima, SS London Valour, SS Lourenço Marques, HMS Lucia, SS Macedonia (1911), SS Maloja, SS Mari Chandris, MV Mefküre, MV Melbourne Star (1936), SS Mexique, SS Minnekahda (1917), SS Mohamed Ali El-Kebir, SS Nailsea Court (1936), USS Newport News (AK-3), SS Nieuw Amsterdam (1905), SS Nieuw Amsterdam (1937), MV Nino Bixio, RMS Nova Scotia (1926), SS Nyassa, SS Ollanta, SS Ophir, RMS Orama (1911), SS Oropesa (1919), SS Otaki (1908), SS Patria (1913), SS Polonia (1910), SS Potaro, SS President Hoover, SS Prinz August Wilhelm, SS Prinz Oskar, Prinzessin Victoria Luise,  Queen of Nations, SS Querimba, TEV Rangatira, SS Reina Victoria-Eugenia, SS River Burnett, SS Robert Coryndon, SS Rochambeau,  Rosalind, SS Rotorua (1910), SS Russian (1895), SS St. Elwyn, HMS Salopian (F94), SS San Flaviano, SS Santa Fé (1921), MV Sebastiano Veniero, SS Shuntien (1934), SS Sir Harvey Adamson, MV Spreewald, SS Springfjord, SS Statendam (1924), SS Stratheden, MV Struma, SS Testbank, SS Themistocles (1907), SS Tzenny Chandris, SS Umona, SS Van Waerwijck, SS Vandyck (1911), SS Vasari (1908), SS Veendam (1922), SS Vigilancia, SS Volendam, MV Victoria (1959), MV Waimarama, SS Wandle (1932), SS Warora, SS Westerdijk, SS Winifredian, SS Yoma, MV Zaandam and SS Zamzam.

In 2012 I created the article Industriewerke Ludwigsfelde, about an East German factory whose products began with aircraft engines and later switched to motor scooters.

Military aviation
Through researching and writing local history I have stumbled upon several air crashes, most of them involving the RAF in the Second World War and Cold War. I have written or contributed to articles including the 1942 Ruislip Wellington accident, Elvetham air crash, Little Baldon air crash and Sutton Wick air crash.

The Ruislip and Elvetham crashes were of aircraft with RAF Volunteer Reserve crews from the First Czechoslovak Republic. I have contributed to articles about the RAF's Czechoslovak-manned squadrons, and written or contributed to biographies of Czechoslovak members of the RAFVR including Ján Ambruš, Josef Bryks, Josef František, Karel Janoušek, Karel Kuttelwascher, Miloslav Mansfeld, Otto Smik and Alois Vašátko. I also contributed to the article about Izidor Kovárik, who served in the Slovak Air Force on the Eastern Front.

Biographies
The history of places, buildings and transport leads to the work of historical figures, so I have ended up writing a number of biographical articles. The majority are either provincial architects, or historians who have written about provincial buildings and places. The remainder are an assortment including two clergy, two landowners, an actor, a clockmaker, a composer and a trades unionist. I have written or contributed to articles including: Cyril Beeson, Thomas Bowles, Ronald Brunskill, Charles Buckeridge, Joseph Clarke (architect), T. Lawrence Dale, Peter Ditchfield, Albert E. Fox, Daniel Harris (Oxford), Roger d'Ivry, Wolf Kaiser, John Knibb, Mary Lobel, Edward Miller (musician), William Henry Page, Clapton Crabb Rolfe, Henry James Tollit, Sir Edward Turner, 1st Baronet and William Wilkinson (architect).

Citing sources
Whenever expanding or creating articles I cite published sources. I refer repeatedly to the same sources and find it time-consuming to keep putting the same details in cite book templates so frequently. To save time I now keep a template of each of my usual sources in a list on a special page from which I can copy and paste them.

Languages
I am fluent in English, fairly good at German and get by in French. If you send me a message in German or French please keep it simple so that I can understand! I know rudimentary Spanish, Czech, Polish and Russian, but not enough to contribute much to Wikipedia.

Userboxes
I use userboxes to summarise some of my interests. Unfortunately I have not the least idea how to control the way they lay themselves out on this page! The "Babel" template seems to have a mind of its own...

Territories etc. visited


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