User:Sam Blacketer

 e collegio D. Catharinæ, eligit Honoratissimum Virum Dominum Sainsbury de Turville in Cancellarium hujus academiæ 



"How can you read an encyclopaedia at a time like this?"

Sam Blacketer is the literary pseudonym of someone who lives in London and served on the Arbitration Committee for a time. 00BKGU 1713

A five year old vandalism revert
On 19 September 2005, IP user 24.0.228.161 added to List of Latin phrases, in relation to the term ecce homo: "Oscar Wilde thus opened his defense on trial for sodomy, characteristically using a well known Biblical reference as a double entendre." After some re-editing the claim was still there until 26 November 2010.

Nice try. The three trials (Wilde's libel prosecution of Marquess of Queensberry, an aborted first trial for gross indecency, and the second trial in which he was convicted) were recorded in shorthand at the time and the shorthand record was then written up and published for the Notable British Trials series in June 1948. A fuller record of the libel trial was discovered much later and published as 'The Irish Peacock and the Scarlet Marquess' in 2003. This statement appears nowhere in any of the trials. Nor does any book about the trial or about Oscar Wilde mention it.

It must be remembered, first, that Oscar Wilde was represented by counsel at his trial, not appearing in person, so he made no speech; he went into the witness box to be examined and cross-examined, but that was to answer questions. It must also be remembered that the term 'homosexual' was in 1895 a relatively new one: it had been coined in 1869 but was confined to academic books (mostly in German) until the 20th century. The libel which Wilde took action over described him as a 'somdomite' (Queensberry misspelling 'sodomite' due to his anger), and that was the usual term.

This was, in short, really a piece of vandalism (possibly from an Uncyclopedia user?) which amazingly managed to last five years before detection.

Prosopography target list
Please note that I am not "reserving" these articles for me to create; feel free to write them yourself. It is just a way of focusing my attention and reminding me of what needs to be done.

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MPs elected in 1955

 * Arthur Cecil Allen
 * C. W. Armstrong
 * Archer Baldwin
 * Alfred Balfour
 * Cyril Banks
 * Patrick Bartley
 * Frank Beswick, Baron Beswick
 * Wilfrid Burke
 * Elaine Burton
 * James Clunie
 * Robert Crouch
 * Percy Daines
 * Sidney Dye
 * Stanley Evans
 * Richard Fort
 * Emlyn Garner Evans
 * Alan Gomme-Duncan
 * John Hall (Labour politician)
 * George Harvie-Watt
 * Ian Macdonald Horobin
 * Thomas Hubbard
 * Ian Hutchison
 * James Hutchison (British politician)
 * Howard Johnson (politician)
 * David Thomas Jones
 * Denis Keegan
 * Guy Lloyd
 * Duncan McCallum
 * Peter Macdonald (Conservative politician)
 * Alan McKibbin
 * William Mainwaring
 * Frederick Messer
 * Percy Morris
 * Morgan Phillips Price
 * David Pryde
 * Victor Raikes
 * Peter Remnant
 * Percy Shurmer
 * Joseph Sparks
 * Douglas Spencer-Nairn
 * Patrick Spens
 * Lawrence Turner
 * Henry Usborne
 * Samuel Viant
 * Charles Waterhouse
 * Charles Williams (UK politician)
 * Gerald Williams (politician)


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UK Members of the European Parliament

 * Gordon Adam
 * Richard Balfe
 * Roger Barton (politician)
 * Robert Battersby
 * Peter Beazley
 * John Bird (British politician)
 * David Bowe (politician)
 * Beata Brookes
 * Bryan Cassidy
 * Kenneth Collins
 * Richard Cottrell
 * Christine Crawley, Baroness Crawley
 * Brendan Donnelly (politician)
 * Diana Elles, Baroness Elles
 * Michael Elliott
 * Alex Falconer
 * Jacqueline Foster
 * Veronica Hardstaff
 * Lyndon Harrison
 * Michael Hindley
 * Gloria Hooper, Baroness Hooper
 * William Hopper (politician)
 * Brian Hord
 * Paul Howell
 * Edward Kellett-Bowman
 * Brian Key
 * Bashir Khanbhai
 * Michael Kilby
 * Alfred Lomas
 * Hugh McMahon
 * Eryl McNally
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 * Graham Mather
 * Tom Megahy
 * Bill Miller (Scotland)
 * Robert Moreland
 * Clive Needle
 * Eddie Newman
 * Christine Oddy
 * Mo O'Toole
 * Anita Pollack
 * Charles Strachey, 4th Baron O'Hagan
 * Ben Patterson
 * Andrew Pearce
 * Terry Pitt
 * Christopher Prout
 * James Provan
 * Shelagh Roberts
 * Barry Seal (politician)
 * Madron Seligman
 * Dr Alexander Sherlock
 * Richard Simmonds
 * Anthony Simpson
 * Alex Smith (politician)
 * Tom Spencer (politician)
 * John Stevens (politician)
 * Kenneth Stewart
 * Jack Stewart-Clark
 * Michael Tappin
 * Frederick Tuckman
 * Amédée Turner
 * Alan Tyrrell
 * Susan Waddington
 * Mark Watts
 * Norman West
 * Ian White (politician) (Brief stub)
 * Joe Wilson (European)
 * }
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Monitoring links
1964 1966 1970 Feb 1974 Oct 1974 1979 1983 1987 1992 1997 2001 2005

Articles I would like to write or expand some day

 * Crown Agents
 * History of Parliament / History of Parliament Trust
 * Lawless v Ireland, the first case heard by the European Court of Human Rights
 * Sir Frank Newsam substantially completed
 * Montagu Norman, 1st Baron Norman
 * Notable British Trials series
 * John Poulson
 * Evelyn Sharp, Baroness Sharp
 * Jim Slater
 * Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden
 * Women in the British House of Commons - was an astonishing omission

Surviving MPs
The twenty former MPs whose service dates back the furthest are:

Note that ties are broken by an examination of which MP took the oath of allegiance first. Thanks to Timrollpickering for this suggestion.

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