Talk:Angus McIntosh (linguist)

A fact from Angus McIntosh (linguist) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 28 July 2021 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Angus McIntosh was a Scottish historical linguist who used his skills to decipher German encryptions at Bletchley Park?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2021/July. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Angus McIntosh (linguist).

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The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by MeegsC (talk) 14:56, 25 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

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... that Angus McIntosh was a Scottish historical linguist who used his skills to decipher German encryptions at Bletchley Park? Source: "his most significant posting was Bletchley. Here, with many of his university peers turned cryptographers and translators, he played his part in decrypting the German military communication and breaking the Enigma codes" [1] and
- ALT1:... that ...? Source: "You are strongly encouraged to quote the source text supporting each hook" (and [link] the source, or cite it briefly without using citation templates)

QPQ Template:Did you know nominations/Kibi Daijin Nittō Emaki

Created by Gaia Octavia Agrippa (talk). Self-nominated at 10:40, 5 July 2021 (UTC).[reply]

Hi Gaia Octavia Agrippa, review follows: article created 3 July; article exceeds minimum length, is well written and cited inline throughout to reliable sources; I didn't spot any overly close paraphrasing of the sources in a spotcheck; hook is interesting, mentioned in the article and checks out to source cited; a QPQ has been carried out. Looks fine to me. I tried to locate the dates of his army rank promotions in the London Gazette but had no luck under McIntosh or MacIntosh, strangely - Dumelow (talk) 13:43, 5 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the review Dumelow! I also tried to find anything in the London Gazette and came up with nothing. Perhaps due to his intelligence work his commission/promotions were never gazetted? (Or he lied and was never an officer). Gaia Octavia Agrippa ^Talk 09:35, 6 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I was inclined to think he was lying or the sources were confused but page 51 of this book states McIntosh was "in the Royal Tank Regiment until January 20 , 1941 , when he was commissioned a Lieutenant in the Intelligence Corps" and "On December 5 , 1944 , he became Major , Intelligence Corps , a rank he held until his discharge" which is very specific - Dumelow (talk) 09:49, 6 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Gaia Octavia Agrippa, I think I've found him in the First Quarter of 1945 Army List: Second Lieutenant A. McIntosh commissioned into the Intelligence Corps 20 January 1941, promoted to the war substantive rank of captain and temporary rank of major on 5 March 1945 - Dumelow (talk) 10:34, 6 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Brilliant research Dumelow! The difficulty is his lack of middle name, but as those dates and sources match, its looking very credible. I'll add them to the article. Thank you for going this extra mile, Gaia Octavia Agrippa ^Talk 10:43, 6 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Gaia Octavia Agrippa: no worries, I love a good mystery! The previous version of the list has his date for promotion to w/s lieutenant and temp captain: 1 June 1941. I've checked back and its the same in the 1941 Army List (he first appears in the fourth quarter edition of that year's list) so there's unlikely to be any other promotions - Dumelow (talk) 10:56, 6 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]