Talk:Middlesex Regiment alien labour units

Military history: British / European / World War I

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A fact from Middlesex Regiment alien labour units appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 3 November 2024 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the British Army deployed companies of aliens to France during the First World War?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2024/November. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Middlesex Regiment alien labour units.

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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. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Kimikel talk 01:44, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

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Article history

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... that during the First World War the British army deployed companies of aliens to France?

Source: Although all eight were described as "Alien" companies, the originals were formed from the sons of foreign nationals, however from 1918 actual foreign nationals were used to form three companies , see eg: "the Director of Labour in France was informed that all Russians and other aliens whom 'it was not desirable to retain with fighting units' were to be sent to the Middlesex Regiment base depot at Etaples. Apart from the Russians, they were to be posted to the Middlesex Infantry Labour Companies ... This enabled three more Middlesex Labour companies to be formed." from: Messenger, Charles (30 April 2015). Call to Arms: The British Army 1914-18. Orion. p. 121. ISBN 978-1-78022-759-7.

ALT1: ... that during the First World War "the queerest battalion in the British Army" did no fighting? Source: "Only in September 1916 did one of the battalions (perhaps in ignorance of the second) become the focus of sarcastic press attention. Headlined 'The Kaiser's Own', the London Evening Standard ran an article about the 'Queerest Battalion in the British Army'" from: Emden, Richard van (15 August 2013). Meeting the Enemy: The Human Face of the Great War. A&C Black. pp. 246–249. ISBN 978-1-4088-3981-2. and "This unit is not a combatant unit" from: "Middlesex Regiment, 30th Battalion : Volume 91: debated on Thursday 8 March 1917". Hansard. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Ivan Palmaw

Created by Dumelow (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 875 past nominations.

Dumelow (talk) 11:26, 9 September 2024 (UTC).[reply]

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy compliance:

Adequate sourcing:
Neutral:
Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:
Other problems:

Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
Cited: Interesting:

QPQ: Done.

Overall:

I certainly think Alt 2 is more interesting as a hook, bot both are brilliant. What a fascinating read! No Swan So Fine (talk) 21:16, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]