Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Southern Rhodesia in World War I

Southern Rhodesia in World War I

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of the TFAR nomination of 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 unless you are renominating the article at TFAR. For renominations, please add   to the top of the discussion and   at the bottom, then complete a new TFAR nom underneath.

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/August 5, 2014 by BencherliteTalk 07:30, 20 July 2014 (UTC)



The involvement of Southern Rhodesia in World War I began on 5 August 1914, when it learned that the United Kingdom had declared war on Germany a day earlier. The British territory of Southern Rhodesia provided over 8,000 soldiers to the British Army during the hostilities, including 1,720 officers. About two-thirds of these servicemen came from the country's white minority—about 40% of the colony's white men enlisted—and these fought primarily on the Western Front in Belgium and France (Rhodesian platoon pictured). Other Southern Rhodesian troops, including 2,500 black soldiers, took part in the South-West African and East African campaigns. Over 800 Southern Rhodesians of all races lost their lives on operational service. The colony's contributions played a part in the UK's decision to grant self-government in 1923, and remained prominent in the Rhodesian national consciousness for decades. Since 1980, when the country became Zimbabwe, the government has removed many memorial monuments and plaques from public view, regarding them as unwelcome vestiges of white minority rule and colonialism. The country's fallen of the war today have no official commemoration, either there or overseas.
 * Most recent similar article(s): war topics have appeared on the main page often recently, but African articles (not to mention African military articles) are under-represented. Shangani Patrol (another Rhodesian military article) was featured on 18 March.
 * Main editors: Cliftonian
 * Promoted: 2013
 * Reasons for nomination: 100th anniversary of announcement that the colony was at war; attempt to counter systemic bias of WW1 centenary coverage
 * Support as nominator. —Cliftonian (talk) 14:46, 26 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Obvious support. Nergaal (talk) 10:39, 30 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Support. Curly Turkey ⚞¡gobble!⚟ 23:35, 30 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Blurb tweaked to start with the bold link, otherwise bots (and some readers...) get confused, and some minor c/e as well, but a well-fashioned blurb (not easy to do) on an interesting topic. BencherliteTalk 00:47, 1 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Cheers —Cliftonian (talk) 17:53, 1 July 2014 (UTC)


 * Support, historical and most educational. &mdash; Cirt (talk) 19:29, 6 July 2014 (UTC)