User:Willthorpe

Musings about editing

Sometimes it is necessary to cull content to improve the encyclopaedia, but likewise it is sometimes necessary to substantially improve content with the addition of easily located sources and rewriting.

Wikipedia contributors are spread too thin, with there being about 54 articles for every active editor. It would be ideal to have more editors, but equally important is adhering to good editorial standards, ensuring the content we compose is well-written and appropriately sourced – and not overly time-sensitive.

Some family history

See also: My Australian story

Like a sizeable number of Britons, I am descended from King Edward III. One 2024 estimate projected that over four million were descended from him, whereas a differing 2021 projection was that two million were descended from his grandfather Edward I. The former, Edward III, is my 21st great-grandfather; Queen Isabella, Regent of England is my 22nd great grandmother; Anne of Gloucester, Countess of Stafford is my 19th great-grandmother; et. cetera. I am hence related to every monarch on the English and thereafter British thrones from Henry VII; this includes the currently reigning King Charles III, my 21st cousin thrice removed.

During her regency, Isabella established peace between England and Scotland. During Edward III's reign, he established the Order of the Garter, and a consensus emerged that in order for a tax to be just, the monarch had to prove its necessity, it had to be granted by the Parliament, and it had to be to the benefit of the community.

The Bourchiers, who connect me to the royals, were a noble family. Lady Cecilia Bourchier – daughter of John Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Bath and Lady Eleanor Manners-Bourchier, Second Countess of Bath – is my 14th great-grandmother.

Ensign Thomas Washer, a soldier, pioneer English settler in Virginia and founding member of the Virginia legislature, is my twelfth great-granduncle. Washer was the son of Reverend William Washer, himself the son of Lady Bourchier.

My first direct ancestor to arrive in Australia was the magistrate William Broughton, who arrived on the First Fleet and was hence one of the original British settlers in Australia; he was the first settler in Appin. Another early arrival is the convict Ann Glossop, who reached Sydney in 1792 and later sadly perished in the Boyd massacre of 1809 in New Zealand. Sarah Heathern Broughton, daughter of the two born in 1799, was a currency lass – one of the first generation of native-born Anglo-Celtic Australians.

The pioneer settler and explorer Charles Throsby Smith arrived into Sydney on 16 April 1816, residing for a short while at Glenfield Farm. He led the first British expedition to the area which is now the capital city, Canberra. He and Sarah Broughton Smith were the first settlers in Wollongong. C. T. Smith is regarded as the city's founder.

I am pleased by the liberal and kind demeanour which I have learned belonged to these ancestors.

I have a very tenuous familial connection to one of my greatest historical interests, the Australian branch of the Wentworths. Sarah and William Charles Wentworth are the great-grandparents of the wife of the fourth cousin of the husband of my first cousin thrice removed. Between the Wentworths and I are the Walkers and the Sellwoods, or 21 people and two marriages. Another connection to the Wentworths is by way of John Bourchier, 1st Earl of Bath, my 16th great-grandfather, separately married to Elizabeth Wentworth, daughter of Anne Say and Sir Henry Wentworth. Meanwhile, Jane Seymour, Queen of England, was the daughter of Elizabeth's sister Margery.

Australian history

• 1788 by Lieutenant General Watkin Tench
• William Charles Wentworth: Australia's greatest native son by Andrew Tink MP
• Sarah Wentworth: Mistress of Vaucluse by Carol Liston AO
• The Pioneers by Katharine Susannah Prichard
  • A wonderful book about Australia's early settlers, which include ancestors of mine.
• The Seahorse and the Wanderer: Ben Boyd in Australia by Marion Diamond

Australian politics

• The Liberal Case for National Reconciliation by Andrew Bragg MP

Commonwealth

• The Rise, Decline and Future of the British Commonwealth by Krishnan Srinivasan

Economics

• The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

Feminism

• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft
  • Concerning Wollstonecraft's strong republicanism and negative outlook toward landed wealth, it is fitting to read her essay within a close time frame of Disraeli's Sybil, a book which impresses me with its feminist themes and representations of powerful women. Both Wollstonecraft and Disraeli, from very different perspectives, paint compelling pictures representative of the lives and lifestyles of those they write about.
• The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner

Fiction

• The Pioneers by Katharine Susannah Prichard
• Sybil, or The Two Nations by Benjamin Disraeli MP
• Numerous of Rudyard Kipling's short stories published in Twenty-One Tales and elsewhere
  • Baa Baa, Black Sheep; On the City Wall; On Greenhow Hill; The Finest Story in the World; A Matter of Fact; The Bridge-Builders; The Brushwood Boy; They; An Habitation Enforced
• The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Poetry

• Numerous of Kipling's poems, including Late Came the God, The Appeal, The Song of the Lathes, The Virginity, The Nurses, Our Lady of the Snows, If–, et. cetera
• My Country by Dorothea Mackellar OBE
• Australasia by William Charles Wentworth
• Invictus by William Earnest Henley
• Night Mail by W. H. Auden

Railways

• Romance of Australian Railways by Patsy Adam-Smith AO, OBE

South Africa

• Jan Christian Smuts by his son Jannie Smuts
• The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner

Articles written

The creation of some of these articles involved substantial amounts of copyediting.

Did You Know?

• Sarah Wentworth
• Statue of James Cook, Hyde Park
• Hunter River Railway Company
• Charles Throsby Smith
• The Cenotaph, Bulawayo
• Railways in Canberra
• Australasia (poem)
• The Naulahka: A Story of West and East

Significant contributions

I have made significant contributions to various articles, including:

• Railway-related articles, including:
  • High-speed rail in Australia
  • Railways in Sydney
  • Light rail
  • Articles related to light rail in Sydney
    • Resurrected the articles for Lilyfield and Wentworth Park light rail stations whilst attempting to better integrate light rail at heavy rail stations (see Dulwich Hill). All light rail station articles were replaced with redirects after remaining published for some months, but it is my belief that these articles will be resurrected again in future.
    • Improved the adjacent stations module for Sydney light rail services
  • Mudgee railway station
  • I have made some contributions to articles concerning the South African railways
• Commonwealth-related articles, including:
  • English in the Commonwealth of Nations
  • Liberalism in South Africa
  • British influence in Pakistan
  • A number of articles related to South Africa, India and other Commonwealth countries
• Australian history articles, including:
  • William Wentworth, and articles related to him and his family
  • William Broughton, my fifth great-grandfather
• Honi Soit, the student newspaper for the University of Sydney

When interests intersect

The authoring of the article for the Hunter River Railway Company was an interesting task, combining my love of history – in this case, Australian colonial history – with my love of railways. More specifically, it combined my fascination with railways with my affinity for the colonial-era statesman William Charles Wentworth, who I have discovered was among many other things something of a railway pioneer like his great-grandson. Articles I've written about railways in Sydney and most particularly in the Inner West where I reside also reflect a convergence of interests!

This user opposes the use of generative artificial "intelligence" software on Wikipedia.

Misc

This user takes public transport.	This user drinks tea.	This user plays the Guitar.
This user is a descendant of a royal family.	This user has Knight ancestors.	An ancestor of this user reached beautiful Australia on the First Fleet!
This user is a professional journalist.	uSyd This user is studying at the University of Sydney	This user loves Express Passenger Trains
This user loves reading The Sydney Morning Herald	E This user reads The Economist.	This user is an enby.
M*A*S*H This user understands: "the M stands for mobile".	This user appreciates the writer Olive Schreiner.	This user loves Joan Baez
This user enjoys the works of William Shakespeare	This user enjoys the works of Rudyard Kipling.	This user is a fan of The Easybeats
This user is too busy singing to put anybody down	This user loves The Beatles.	This user is a fan of The Rolling Stones.
This user is proud to be British.	This user loves New Zealand.	Proud to be Australian.

Interests

More information This user is interested in the United Kingdom., This user is interested in the Commonwealth of Nations. ...

This user is interested in the United Kingdom.	This user is interested in the Commonwealth of Nations.	This user is interested in the history of Australia.
	This user is a railway buff
This user is interested in South Africa.	This user is interested in the British Empire.	This user is interested in the United States of America.

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Societal issues

In Moderation placing all my Glory,
While Tories call me Whig, and Whigs a Tory.

lib This user is a liberal.	This user is a feminist	This user is an internationalist.
This user wishes humans would just get rid of their overly destructive weapons.	This user strongly believes in freedom of speech.	This user supports the Australian Crown.
This user supports the Indian National Congress.	DA This user supports the Democratic Alliance.	This user supports reconciliation in Australia.
This user supports Hong Kong independence.	This user supports LGBTIA rights.	To this user, all human lives matter.