A fact from Walter Waddington appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 6 April 2013 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that American, Belgian and British soldiers attended the funeral of Walter Waddington, along with an entire French cavalry brigade?
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Latest comment: 11 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion
User:Peacemaker67 proposed this article for deletion with the rationale: "Per WP:BASIC Waddington does not appear to be the subject of multiple published secondary sources which are reliable, intellectually independent of each other, and independent of the subject. 13 of the 16 citations are primary military service records or genealogy records. Per WP:ANYBIO - Waddington does not appear to have received a well-known and significant award or honour, or been nominated for one several times, or made a widely recognized contribution that is part of the enduring historical record in his or her specific field. Per WP:SOLDIER Waddington appears to have been a brigadier, marginal (at best) to meet criteria 3. "general officer"."
I was working by my recollection of WP:SOLDIER. In my memory it was fairly unambiguous: all officers of general rank are notable - upon re-reading I see that it is slightly less so stating "will almost always". I would dispute that générals de brigade (and it's alternatives) are "marginal" general officers, the OED says "general officern. Mil. an officer above the rank of colonel" which is also my understanding - a clear cut line between general officers and field officers. I agree with your point regarding sources, there don't seem to be many written about French officers of the era. I often envy the sources writing about (to take an example) generals of the American Civil War when almost anyone who held even temporary, volunteer army, acting or brevet general rank has an article supported by secondary sources dedicated to that sort of thing. Perhaps that is why there are 823 articles in Category:Union Army generals (covering one side in a four-year long war) and only 765 in Category:French generals and Category:Marshals of France covering an entire nation with a long and distinguished military history in which it has fought countless significant wars. Still, I am verging on WP:OTHERSTUFF now so I will shut up. If you like I will delete this article and move it back to my userspace until I can add some more sources (I am hoping to find some offline after a bit of searching). Let me know - Dumelow (talk) 20:59, 18 March 2013 (UTC)Reply
Brigadier has not always been considered a general rank in all armies, but in this case I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on the "general officer" criteria. His real problem is per WP:BASIC and WP:ANYBIO in my view. Of course, if you find sources that meet WP:BASIC there is no problem. From what I read, it seems unlikely he would meet WP:ANYBIO. You could move him back to user space until you've found the necessary sources, but I'll lay off for a couple of weeks and revisit at that point. Nothing against old Walter. Regards, Peacemaker67 (send... over) 00:27, 19 March 2013 (UTC)Reply
