Talk:Edwin Boxshall
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | Edwin Boxshall has been listed as one of the Social sciences and society good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it. | |||||||||
| ||||||||||
 | A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on November 28, 2025. The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that Edwin Boxshall, described as Britain's longest-serving spy, was still advising the Foreign Office right up to the time of his death? | |||||||||
| This article is rated GA-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
.svg)
Nominator: Aeengath (talk · contribs) 08:44, 10 June 2025 (UTC)
GA review
- This review is transcluded from Talk:Edwin Boxshall/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.
Reviewer: Dumelow (talk · contribs) 06:54, 11 October 2025 (UTC)
Happy to take a look at this one - Dumelow (talk) 06:54, 11 October 2025 (UTC)
- Thank you for agreeing to review the article, much appreciated. -Aeengath (talk) 12:05, 11 October 2025 (UTC)
1. Well-written
Criteria: the prose is clear, concise, and understandable to an appropriately broad audience; spelling and grammar are correct; and it complies with the Manual of Style guidelines for lead sections, layout, words to watch, fiction, and list incorporation.
- I would consider moving the first sentence of the second paragraph of "Early life and First World War" to the third paragraph discussing the Military Mission cover as he wasn't commissioned until August 1917.
- Done.
- I would add a mention that Romania was originally neutral but joined the Allies in August 1916 to provide some context and that, although defeated, the part of Romania Boxshall was operating from wasn't occupied. I would also provide some context to the reader around the Russian Civil War and the Romanian military intervention in Bessarabia to explain what Boxshall was doing there.
- Done. Added context with two sources to support (Hall and Clodfelter).
- "He has been described as one of the longest-serving officers in British intelligence history", I would attribute this statement in the article ("...described by XXXXXX as ...") to avoid any potential issues wiuth MOS:AWW.
- Done.
- I would provide a link to 1945 Birthday Honours in relation to his MBE
- Done.
2. Verifiable with no original research
Criteria: it contains a list of all references (sources of information), presented in accordance with the layout style guideline; reliable sources are cited inline. All content that could reasonably be challenged, except for plot summaries and that which summarizes cited content elsewhere in the article, must be cited no later than the end of the paragraph (or line if the content is not in prose); it contains no original research; and it contains no copyright violations or plagiarism.
- Missing a citation after "Boxshall was succeeded as the Foreign Office’s SOE Adviser by Christopher M. Woods followed by Gervase Cowell"
- Done. Added missing sfn
- You mention his 1947 divorce in the infobox but it is not cited and not mentioned in the article
- Done. Added per Davenport
- His rank of lt-col is mentioned only in the infobox and uncited
- Done.
- The introduction to Who's who in Central and East-Europe states that the information contained was gathered form the subjects. I think, therefore, that you should be treating it as an WP:SPS, I don't think you should state eg. that he held the honours listed on this basis. You could, though say "his entry in teh 1935 Who's who in Central and East-Europe stated that he held..."
- Done.
- Spot checks:
- "He developed a wide network of influential contacts, including arms magnate Sir Basil Zaharoff, whose support helped legitimise his commercial role" checks out to Bennett 2012, p. 166.
- "During this time, he was instrumental in brokering military-industrial contracts, including the sale of submarine equipment to the Romanian Navy." checks out to Deletant 2016, p. xi.
- MBE checks out to the Gazette
- Noted, thank you for verifying.
3. Broad in its coverage
Criteria: it addresses the main aspects of the topic; and it stays focused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail (see summary style).
Consider adding the following from the London Gazette:
- appointment as temporary honorary 2nd lieutenant 11 August 1917
- promotion to temporary honorary captain 22 August 1919
- relinquished commission 1 October 1920 but retained the honorary rank
- commissioned 2nd lt on the General List 29 August 1941
- I've not managed to track down his subsequent promotions in the Gazette but you can follow his progress as a holder of a Regular Army Emergency Commission through the Army List
- The first quarter 1942 list show he was promoted to the war substantive rank of lieutenant on 29 August 1941 and held the temporary rank of captain from 29 November 1942.
- The 1st quarter 1945 Army List shows promotion to the war substantive rank of captain on 21 August 1942 and the temporary rank of major on the same date.
- The first quarter 1946 list shows he became a war substantive major on 1 November 1945 and temporary rank of lt-col on the same date
- Done. Added verified London Gazette and Army List citations with a new Military commissions section summarising confirmed ranks and promotion dates (1917–1945).
4. Neutral
Criteria: it represents viewpoints fairly and without editorial bias, giving due weight to each.
ResolvedI found no issues with WP:NPOV
5. Stable
Criteria: it does not change significantly from day to day because of an ongoing edit war or content dispute.
ResolvedNo disputes evident in page history or on talk page
6. Illustrated
Criteria: media are tagged with their copyright statuses, and valid non-free use rationales are provided for non-free content; and media are relevant to the topic, and have suitable captions.
- There is a photo on Getty that could be cropped and used under a fair use tag
- Done. Added 1979 Getty image of Boxshall under fair-use rationale with appropriate caption and licensing details.
Good work! Passing this for GA - Dumelow (talk) 13:52, 11 October 2025 (UTC)
Did you know nomination
- 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. You can locate your hook here. No further edits should be made to this page.
The result was: promoted by TechnoSquirrel69 (talk) 20:19, 23 November 2025 (UTC)
- ... that Edwin Boxshall, believed to be Britain’s longest-serving spy, was still advising MI6 at 86?
- Reviewed:
Aeengath (talk) 18:22, 11 October 2025 (UTC).
| General: Article is new enough and long enough |
|---|
| Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems |
|---|
|
| Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation |
|---|
|
| QPQ: None required. |
Overall: Interesting article nominated on same day as promoted to GA. Couple of comments on the hook. The article doesn't literally say anywhere, as the hook, does, that he was still advising at 86 - it says he was advising at time of death which elsewhere is stated to be 86. But I think it would be too pedantic to question that. I can't actually access the source that's cited for the hook but AGF'ing, especially as it's supported in the article by a second source, Bennett, which I could access. (There's a slight discrepancy with the age in Bennett as that says 87 not 86. But it seems clear that Bennet made an understandable mistake as Boxshall died 9 days short of his 87th birthday. Bennett also calls him Edward. But it's obviously the same person and I noticed that some of the other sources called him Edward.) DeCausa (talk) 11:33, 1 November 2025 (UTC)
- @DeCausa: Thanks very much for the review! I’ve now added a 1979 Daily Telegraph to the article confirming that Boxshall was still advising the Foreign Office at age 82, this may be a safer choice.
- ALT1: ... that Edwin Boxshall, described as Britain’s longest-serving spy, was still advising the Foreign Office at 82?
- ALT2: ... that Edwin Boxshall, described as Britain’s longest-serving spy, was still advising the Foreign Office right up to the time of his death?
Boxhall spent longer in Britain's Secret Service than probably any other man in history and was still being consulted on some of its affairs right up to the time of his death.
