Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Peer review/James Graham (British Army soldier)

James Graham (soldier)

I am interested in gaining comments from interested persons about this article on the "Hero of Waterloo", with a view to improving the article and nominating for GA. It is not long, but covers the relevant information about Graham. I am aware it lacks pictures; some paintings exist but I do not know copyright issues. Any help or advice appreciated. Many thanks, Gwinva (talk) 09:28, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

• Update I have provided a section on Graham's early life and service, and a summary background into the Bergen op Zoom and Waterloo campaigns, and supplemented the information of Graham's laetr career, as well as worked on the stylistic points mentioned by Cam and Gaia Octavia Agrippa below. I would appreciate comments or review of the article as it now stands. Thanks, Gwinva (talk) 09:17, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Cam

On the whole, a very good article. However, there are several things that stand out as needing some tweaking and/or improvement.

• On a format note, The Quotebox on the right side of the main section is messing up the flow of the entire article. Is there some way for you to work that directly into the text? Although quoteboxes work for smaller blocks of text work, I think that the quotation for the box is way too long for usage in the quotebox, as it disrupts the format of the entire article.
• I think that the lead needs to be expanded. Although it gives a brief outline of James Graham, I think it could go into more detail.
• There is absolutely nothing dealing with James Graham's earlier life (i.e. Before the Battle). I think that, before you nominate it for GA, you need to find some information about his earlier life & training. This will substantially improve the quality of the article.

I see very little issue with the content already there, it's mainly the content that should probably be added within the near future. All the best with taking the article forward. Cheers! Cam (Chat) 21:46, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for those helpful comments; they give me a good idea of where to go next. I will sort the formatting out, as you suggested, and expand the lead. And you are quite right, the article does just leap straight into the battle at Waterloo. There is little information available about Graham's earlier life, but since I have his years of service I will be able to describe his military experience a little, from the more general Coldstream Guards information. Again, thanks for the pointers. Gwinva (talk) 00:41, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Gaia Octavia Agrippa

It is a good biography but there is a lot still to be done in my view.

• It needs more details of his career before and after the battle.
• It needs details about his personal life.
• It needs reformatting to improve the layout of the page.
• It needs more relative links.
• It definitely needs a picture of him.
• It should have more information in the info-box.

Overall it is a B-class article but has a long way to go to become A-class or even GA . Gaia Octavia Agrippa ^T | _C 20:49, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the pointers. As I mentioned to Cam above, there is little information or details about his personal life available, but I will follow up regimental histories to get an overview of campaign experience. I presume the formatting isssues are similar to those mentioned by Cam above? But what do you mean by "relative links"? And what other information needs to go in infobox? (I've added allegiance and service branch). As to the pictures of him, there are some around: portrait (held at National Gallery of Ireland) and Robert Gibb's famous painting of the closing of the gates at Hougoumont but I don't know how to discover the copyright status of these. Are they held by the museums? Or has copyright expired on all paintings of that age? Many thanks for the comments and help so far. Gwinva (talk) 01:02, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Noetica

I have nothing much to add to the suggestions above. I do think it needs more detail of his life beyond the military: his early circumstances, his family, and the like. Yes, a portrait would be good too. I'd be reluctant to spend time on formatting right now, until any new images or other elements are in place. I have just done a copyedit of the whole article. I think it was already quite orderly, and I can't immediately find any way to improve it with the current content. I have left a couple of questions in my edit summaries (marked in capitals: "QUESTION:"), which may be worth following up. A good article, modest in scope. Does its job well!

–_⊥^{¡ɐɔıʇǝo}Noetica!^T– 07:06, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, Noetica. I have followed up on those questions in the edit summaries. I have failed to find any verifiable information about Graham's early circumstances, so will have to leave it there. As far as pictures, there seems to be copyright issues with paintings held in Britain (copies are subject to copyright, regardless of whether the original is in the public domain or not). I have queried this at Wikipedia:Media copyright questions (see [1], which seems to confirm this. In addition, I've emailed various sites which use the paintings, without success. At this stage, it will have to remain a "good article, modest in scope". Thanks for all the help! Gwinva (talk) 05:56, 4 May 2008 (UTC)