Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Fred J Speakman


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   keep. (non-admin closure) Ron Ritzman (talk) 01:52, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Fred J Speakman

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No noted notability. Only listed reference is a photo of a plaque, and no other sources found on a quick search. fuzzy510 (talk) 04:30, 14 March 2009 (UTC) Hi. Please read comment below regarding Speakman's notability. Thankyou
 * Comment I found 105 gBook hits, including a reference to a Primary School Library Books, where a book is described as "..a very highly praised..." and a web entry that calls Speakman a "...respected naturalist...". 74.69.39.11 (talk) 16:12, 14 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Comment

Fred Speakman grew up and lived in Epping Forest and in his later years ran a Field study centre at High Beach, where Speakman pond still bears his name. other titles by him are A Poachers Tale Torty of Woodend Out of the Wild Tracks, Trails and Signs a forest by Night I hope that this information is of help regards Tony O'Connor District Museum Officer Epping Forest District Museum 39/41 Sun Street Waltham Abbey Essex EN9 3TY 01992 716882

Northmetpit (talk) 18:03, 14 March 2009 (UTC) 
 * I'm going to come down on the side of keep here because he has a blue plaque erected here. In the UK, a blue plaque is erected to to commemorate a link between a location and a famous person (or event). I note also that Speakman was active long before the internet (he died in 1979, I think) so it is unlikely that we would find coverage of him there and we would need to resort to paper sources. Despite that, there are a lot of hits in Google books, as noted by user 74.69.39.11, of his books and of reviews of his books, from which we glean snippets that Speakman was a "famous naturalist", "one of Britain's best-known naturalist-authors", and "Mr. Speakman is among Britain's leading naturalist-authors". There is, I think, an article to be written here but it needs more work and access to paper sources. If consensus is for delete, I would be grateful if the article could be userfied to my userspace for further work. Thanks, --Malcolmxl5 (talk) 00:18, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion so consensus may be reached. Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks,  MBisanz  talk 00:01, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Weak Keep Blue Plaques are rarely doled out in the UK and only to by definition notables. But could do with more sourcing on his books and background--Moloch09 (talk) 01:58, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Keep: Sourcing is going to be an issue given the time and place of activity, but a quick troll through Google books shows his works featuring prominently in education and book sales yearbooks in the 50s and 60s, there's a British Pathe clip from 1968 of him leading trips that makes a point of showing all his books to paint him as a renowned expert. People are interviewed in a city of London oral history of urban children retreats remembering meeting him (as if hew were a star), and most of the mentions of him in naturalist contexts come across as an appeal to authority when using his name. The problem is, there's not much online reference for popular naturalism education of the early 1960s.  Despite that, it seems a fair bet that he was then much better known than prominent British scientists of his day whose notability is today easier to reference. Also, his illustrated books seem today much in demand from the antiquarian book trade.  T L Miles (talk) 17:05, 19 March 2009 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.