User:GavinRobinson

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Revision as of 12:03, 9 June 2017 by GavinRobinson (talk | contribs) (To do list)

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Historian and palaeographer. I run Different Hand Ltd, doing manuscript transcription, XML markup, research assistance and related services. My PhD thesis and published work are on horses and cavalry in the English Civil War. I got into First World War research through tracing my great-grandad, who was in 1/5th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment. I was a moderator at Your Archives and used to blog at Investigations of a Dog.

To do list

  • branches and services: replace 'British colonial forces' with something more specific where possible eg
    • British Imperial Forces
      • Regular Army [for West India Regiment, West African Regiment etc, see Manual of Military Law; could also include BWIR?]
      • WAFF
      • KAR
    • for strictly colonial forces, try to find out what they were actually called. Try Quarterly Army List, and combine this with finding missing colonial units.
  • fields and categories to track completeness of pages eg are names/relationships complete, with exact dates and citations?
  • once the above are settled:
    • Australian CMF/PF units need linking to Army List and names confirming
    • AIF battalions need full names adding from Monthly Army List
    • pals battalions need cat, redirects and name checks (got early official name histories from ACIs but still need source for nicknames)
    • easy name checks for British infantry:
      • pre-war regular infantry battalions
      • Special Reserve battalions
      • regular cavalry should already have correct names but will need confirming
      • divisions from Becke (probably already done but will need confirming)
    • name checks for Indian Army (got Indian Army List)
  • British page name conventions (see Talk:Naming conventions for British units). Once this is settled:
    • import British VTC/VF battalions and regiments (got name histories from AOs)
    • look for and import missing British infantry brigades from Becke and James
    • redirects for British Army infantry battalions that omit the word 'Battalion' (will make search suggestions easier)
  • other things that don't depend on the above:
    • import other American units from Order of Battle:
      • AEF GHQ/army/corps troops from vol 1
      • home divisions, departments and camps from vol 3.2
      • all other home units from vol 3.3
    • import Indian Volunteers and Defence Force
    • import NZTF and see if any NZEF battalions or brigades are missing
    • import Canadian militia infantry and cavalry
    • check Quarterly Army List for obscure colonial units

Once above things are done we should have more or less all infantry and cavalry units from the British Empire and all US Army units.

Other things for the future:

  • look into using APIs to extract batches of personal narratives and media from major collections
  • see how many IWM Lives communities need to be added to unit pages
  • decide which tasks most need to be added to How you can help (too many/too complicated could be overwhelming)
  • should AIF field artillery batteries be merged with parent brigades? List of relationships at Digger History.