Talk:William Harcourt (politician)

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Family

I am planning to come and do some work here soon. The family section looks to long. I think that the best thing is to move the detail to Harcourt family. Any thoughts?Cutler (talk) 01:30, 17 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Could we replace this with a nice family tree like here?Cutler (talk) 12:04, 18 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Vernon

Is "Vernon" part of the surname or a given name? Danceswithzerglings (talk) 03:47, 28 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

People weren't so precise back then. A lot of men's name included the surname of a female relative in their usual given name and were known by it - see for instance Andrew Bonar Law and Arthur Conan Doyle - whereas some used shortened forms - e.g. Lord Randolph Churchill (not "Lord Randolph Spencer Churchill"). There weren't so many rigid pro forma back then and English law allows people to use whatever name they like so long as it's not for fraudulent purposes without having to register changes. Hence often it's unclear where the forenames stop and the surnames start. Timrollpickering (talk) 20:53, 9 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

IIRC, the Spencer-Churchills were originally Spencers, but they added Churchill to their name as part of an inheritance arrangement. Drutt (talk) 00:13, 20 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

He was known as William Harcourt, not William Vernon Harcourt. See, for example, Dictionary of Liberal Biography by Duncan Brack et al, and The Enigmatic Edwardian by James Lees-Milne. DuncanHill (talk) 16:41, 12 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Ducking

Anyone have a source for the tale - I think it was some time in the early 1880s - of how he was in Yorkshire on a speaking tour or some such activity, and was asked by a journalist whether he had seen the local sport of "ducking"? He replied to the effect that he had heard of it and hoped to enjoy a spot of "ducking" himself whilst he was in the area. A mischievous copy-editor replaced the "d" with an "f".Paulturtle (talk) 22:49, 25 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]