Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/John Williams (engineer)


 * 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   delete. Martijn Hoekstra (talk) 11:58, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

John Williams (engineer)

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Williams appears to be a local man who oversaw the project and was not notable in any other way. The article was nominated for speedy deletion when it was created, but two editors asked for time to expand the single sentence. Over four years later, no additional information has been found. I notified the two original editors, but neither has responded after several weeks.

Hadfield (Canals of the West Midlands p.194) confirms the statement, but adds nothing else. Skempton (Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers p.362) has a similar sentence in an article on Josias Jessop, but Williams does not merit his own entry. His name is mentioned in Arnold's "The Montgomery Canal", but nothing else. I can find no other details of his life or work, and the single sentence is adequately covered in the article on the Montgomery Canal.

Bob1960evens (talk) 13:17, 24 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Speedy delete -- Nsda (talk) 14:14, 24 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Delete (or even speedy delete) per nom, especially as all of the information in this article can already be found in Montgomery Canal. Zad68 (talk) 14:16, 24 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Comment is it possibly the same Johm Williams mentioned here ? Derek Andrews (talk) 15:35, 24 February 2012 (UTC)
 * The name is the same and the dates are about right, but John Williams was a fairly common name in Wales, and I can find nothing to confirm the link. (I had a similar problem recently with James Abernethy, where the Dictionary of Scottish Architects Biography had muddled two men with the same name together). The fact that the Biographical Dictionary gives dates for the John Williams on p.430, but not for the one on p.362 would suggest they are probably different men. Bob1960evens (talk) 13:31, 27 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of People-related deletion discussions.  • Gene93k (talk) 18:19, 24 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Reluctant delete (without prejudice to recreation of an expanded article). I'd love to be able to claim that this was an unexpanded stub on a character who had some further as-yet unmentioned influence elsewhere. However if he did have, I can't see it (or in any of my canal books). Montgomery Canal's coverage seems to be enough to say everything we can do about him. Andy Dingley (talk) 20:32, 24 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Delete Given the lack of material available at this time, I would say he is not notable. I think it is probably worth considering that by 1820, canal engineers were probably two a penny and, other than doing the job they were paid to do, were generally not making any advances that would make them notable. Derek Andrews (talk) 18:45, 27 February 2012 (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.