Talk:Victor Gerson
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Discussion on birth
editMr Lambert would like me to discuss his edit to Victor Gerson, so I will. The page was created by MrArmstrong2 in June, 2019. Most of it is a barely re-worded copy of the main source. For example, the source says
Gerson imposed strict rules on his members and despite the circuit being penetrated three times by the Gestapo (June, 1943, October 1943 and January 1944) and although some were arrested the group were able to continue its activities.
MrArmstrong2 wrote
Gerson imposed strict rules on his members and despite the circuit being penetrated three times by the Gestapo in June and October 1943 and January 1944, after which some members were arrested, the group was able to continue its activities.
That sentence has since been broken up into two parts, separated by a list that does not appear in the main source and is likely cut and pasted from elsewhere.
Smallchief changed the birth date from 1896 to 1898 with an edit summary of "fixing birth date according to ref". The main source gives 1898 as the birth date, so I suspect Smallchief looked at it before making the change. A different source used on the page, this one from the UK National Archives, gives the birth date as 1896. Other reliable sources also have the 1896 birth date, including the 1978 book Six Faces of Courage by M. R. D. Foot, which devotes a chapter to Gerson.
If Mr Lambert looked at the first source in the reference list and confirmed that birth date given there matched the text of the Wikipedia page, that is all I would expect him to do. I have done more than that because I think it is worth my effort to illustrate that doing this right takes time. I found when the change to the dates was made, by whom, and why (thanks to the edit summary). That edit summary made me check more than one source. This is complicated by the fact that so much information easily available online has its origins in Wikipedia, so mistakes get propagated. Doing this right is a tedious exercise and not something that can be done at the Mr Lambert's speed. Polycarpa aurata (talk) 15:35, 1 July 2022 (UTC) I have copied the above from the ANI discussion.John Pack Lambert (talk) 16:53, 1 July 2022 (UTC) John Pack Lambert (talk) 16:53, 1 July 2022 (UTC)
- If Foot said Gerson was born in 1896, that is the most authoritative source. Foot was the official historian of the SOE. Smallchief (talk) 17:53, 1 July 2022 (UTC)