Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Maurice Wilder-Neligan

Maurice Wilder-Neligan

 * This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page. 

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/July 29, 2018 by Jimfbleak - talk to me?  09:07, 18 June 2018 (UTC)



Lieutenant Colonel Maurice Wilder-Neligan, CMG, DSO & Bar, DCM (4 October 1882 – 10 January 1923), was a rather eccentric British-born Australian soldier. He emigrated to Australia before the war, and enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force to serve in World War I. He was decorated for bravery and commissioned during the Gallipoli campaign of 1915. On the Western Front in early 1916, he led a "most brilliant" raid, resulting in a second decoration for gallantry. In July 1917, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and was appointed to command the 10th Battalion. He led it during the Battle of the Menin Road Ridge in September and was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in June 1918. Perhaps his greatest achievement was the capture of Merris on 29 July, for which he was again decorated for courage. After the war, he worked as a district officer in the Territory of New Guinea, where he died at the age of 40.
 * Most recent similar article(s): There hasn't been a military biography as TFA since Henry Wrigley on March 7.
 * Main editors: Peacemaker67
 * Promoted: October 11, 2017
 * Reasons for nomination: 100th anniversary of "his greatest achievement", the capture of Merris
 * Support as nominator. Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 07:28, 16 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Support as a member of WikiProject Military History. – Vami _IV✠  11:48, 31 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Comment This looks good, but could the blurb be tweaked to indicate how Wilder-Neligan was eccentric? The word will get readers' attention, but the blurb at present doesn't provide any details. Nick-D (talk) 23:27, 8 June 2018 (UTC)
 * I was rather looking to encourage people to clink on the link and read the article. Cheers, Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 09:55, 10 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Fair enough - and after reading the article, the nature of his eccentricity seems tricky to summarise into a blurb-style sentence. Support The article remains in great shape, and is a good choice given the centenary of both this event and the war. Nick-D (talk) 22:21, 10 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Well ... the blurb length is 1208 characters (we're aiming for 1000 these days), so something needs to be cut.  "eccentric" is a likely target, since the blurb doesn't explain what it means. But it's great that you're livening up the blurb ... TFA could use more of that. - Dank (push to talk) 14:52, 15 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Trimmed. Has the 1,000 limit been added to the template recently, Dan? I was just following the guidance at the time... Peacemaker67  (click to talk to me) 23:50, 15 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes, and I apologize for the short notice. The (lack of) discussion was at WT:Today's_featured_article/Archive_10. It used to work to aim for around 1100, but I kept finding more and more blurbs that just weren't going to go over 1000 characters no matter what, and over the years, consistency in column length has become more important at ERRORS. But I wanted to wait a couple of months and make sure that the new 925-to-1075 limits didn't cause friction. They haven't (so far), so I just recently changed over to the new numbers on TFA pages. Your blurb looks good ... can I say that the raid was praised by war historians rather than putting "most brilliant" in quotes? I don't like unattributed quotes, per WP:INTEXT. Also, we haven't been doing postnominals at TFA for many years, but if you want to write one or more of them out in the text, that's fine. - Dank (push to talk) 01:56, 16 June 2018 (UTC)