Help us find next week's Connection Finder profiles: Military Heroes [closed]

+14 votes
521 views

Next week, the featured example profiles in the Connection Finder will be military heroes in honor of Armistice Day (also referred to as Remembrance Day and Veterans Day). Our featured profile will be the first woman to be named a Major Superintendent in the US Army, Col. Julia Stimson.

We're looking for profiles of people who were military heroes from around the world. Here are a few ideas of what we're looking for and some we're getting started on:

Can you help with these profiles, or expand their families? Adding relatives in any direction helps with connections. Every missing relative you add will make our connections to them closer.

Who else should we feature? Do they need a profile?

All profiles we feature need a good biography and a connection to the big tree. We also want each one to have an image, and the image needs to have proper source attribution explaining why it's in the public domain or why we have the right to display it.

We can't feature everyone mentioned (we only have room for eight per week), but if we don't feature a profile you work on, we may use it sometime in the future. And, of course, all contributions help improve our shared tree.

We'll make a final decision on which ones to feature early next week.

Please reply here with what you're working on so that we don't duplicate our efforts. Thank you!

To help us plan future themes, see the 2020 Example Profile Plans post here.

WikiTree profile: Julia Stimson
closed with the note: Feature has run: https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1135501/which-world-war-military-hero-are-you-most-closely-connected
in The Tree House by Abby Glann G2G6 Pilot (730k points)
closed by Abby Glann

Have not checked for profiles yet, but --

Jane Addams (1860 - 1935)
peace advocate - first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize

Grace Banker (1892 - 1966)
American - telephone operator near the battlefields of France

Edith Cavell (1865 - 1915)
English - nurse
Cavell was executed by firing squad on October 12, 1915

Marthe Cnockaert (1892 - 1966) cannot find a WT profile Wikipedia page 
Belgian - nurse

Elsie Inglis (1864 - 1917) cannot find a WT profile  Wikipedia page
Scottish - doctor

Flora Sandes (1876 - 1956) (You already list Flora)
Irish - soldier

Julia Catherine Stimson (1881 - 1948) (Main focus)
American - nurse

Louise Thuliez (1881 - 1966) cannot find a WT profile Wikipedia page
French - teacher - , resistance fighter worked with Edith Cavell Great War,
resistance - second World War

.

Edited to add links.

For New Zealand Lt Col Vida Jowett. She was responsible for  including women in the NZ Army. Oh no, I haven’t got a picture.sad

@ Fiona -- contact the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa for  permission to use the image found here.  (I could do a crop of the image that might, maybe, fall under fair use, but I like to ask permission first, if there is somewhere to ask.)

Is it just WW1 profiles

see https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Monash-2
and https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Pegahmagabow-2 but he is not connected but i do believe that some of his ancestors are here i just have not looked at the sources if anyone is interested here is a start see https://www.familysearch.org/tree/pedigree/landscape/LZYW-WPT I am too tired at the moment to do much more

see https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/York-6

There is an extensive public family tree for Flora Sandes on Ancestry that does appear to have sources for much of it.

 https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/77342421/person/130126708898/facts 

I suggest  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Harris-26180 also known as "Bomber Harris" SIr Arthur Travis Harris GCB OBE

I suggest  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Harris-26180 also known as "Bomber Harris" SIr Arthur Travis Harris GCB OBE

.

His current biography appears to be a direct copy of what is on Wikipedia.  I  have adopted the profile and will see what I can do to correct that. 

I haven't done anything yet for Arthur's profile (other than add an image), but I have added his first wife as she was missing.
I cannot say for sure "I am done" (are any of us  ever "done" with updating?), but I have done what I can to rewrite Harris's biography so it is no longer just a couple of paragraphs copied from Wikipedia.

He has both wives, and I intend to add his one daughter from the first marriage who is, herself, notable.
Added the one daughter, and the son (not a great bio, but I could not find any real information on him).  Still one daughter to go, so am working on getting sources for her.

Even if he is not chosen, I feel good that the profile is improved.
Definitely not ready for this but I just created a profile for my third cousin [[Dance-694|Eric George Dance (1900-1943)]] who died in a POW camp on New Guinea during WWII. Both he and his father were involved in the theater, with [[Dance-524|George  Dance (1857-1932)]] eventually being awarded knighthood for saving the "Old Vic" Theatre in London. Eric is commemorated by the Singapore Memorial as one of "over 24,000 casualties of the Commonwealth land and air forces who have no known grave."

His cousin, my GG-grandfather emigrated to the the States as a child and then served in the Civil War: [[Machin-213|Robert  Machin (1842-1884)]] was shot in the chest during a cavalry charge but survived to start a family.

On the other side of the family is an Admiral who solved the torpedo problem that prevented US Navy submarines in the early part of WWII from having any impact at all. [[Fife-528|James  Fife Jr (1897-1975)]] graduated from the USNA right at the end of WWI, served throughout the next two decades all over the world before WWII, and after the war he eventually became the US NATO commander stationed on Malta. His mother's family was from the island of Bornholm in Denmark and his father's family had been Scottish immigrants originally recruited by the Mormons but eventually moving on to Nevada.

Just some ideas... IF you're going to go broader than WWI.
Elsie Inglis has a profile at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Inglis-876 with a bio and photos - and it's connected!
Elsie Inglis has a profile at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Inglis-876 with a bio and photos - and it's connected!

-

I DID look for one, I swear! 

I only knew she had one 'cos I worked on it a couple of years ago wink

Added the one daughter, and the son (not a great bio, but I could not find any real information on him).  Still one daughter to go, so am working on getting sources for her.

Even if he is not chosen, I feel good that the profile is improved.

.

Arthur has all his children, now.  I got a wee bitty bit sidetracked on the one son-in-law's family while looking for sources for him (the son-in-law), so have not yet tackled Artur's parents.  blush  I will try to do that later today.

Thanks, Melanie, for the Vida Jowett photo. It just seemed in the “too hard” pile for this week.
I figure if someone objects to its usage here, we can remove it.  But I do believe it falls under "fair use".

8 Answers

+14 votes

I would be reluctant to present Philippe (his call name was not the first name) Pétain as military hero. Though he had an important and positive role in World War  I, in France he is now more associated with the ignominious defeat of 1940, collaboration with Nazi Germany (he was tried for high treason after the World War II and only escaped execution on account of his old age), in any case, he is a controversial figure.

Charles de Gaulle ("the General") would be considered more of a hero (and generally admired) or perhaps Philippe Leclerc, though both are more associated with World War II. They both need biography work but they are connected. (I could connect Pétain too, have not made this an emergency so far).

As a side note, French tradition is to commemorate World War I on 11 November, while World War II is remembered on 8 May.

by Isabelle Martin G2G6 Pilot (566k points)
+10 votes

Albert Ball, World War One flying ace and local Nottingham legend. When the Germans finally shot him down over France, they buried him with full military honours as a mark of respect. (Profile complete and connected)

by Jo Fitz-Henry G2G6 Pilot (171k points)
+11 votes

I would nominate Arthur Currie as Canada's hero. He seems to have been just about the first commander in World War I to clue in that sending troops over the top into machine gun fire was no way to run a war.

by Greg Slade G2G6 Pilot (678k points)
+11 votes

I think the premier of Vichy France is a TERRIBLE choice for "military heroes"; if you want a Frenchman then Charles de Gaulle, or Ferdinand Foch, but not Pétain.

Others from the WWI time period: Charles Whittlesey (USA), Manfred von Richthofen (Germany); Frederick Tubb VC (Australia).

by C Handy G2G6 Pilot (209k points)

the red baron got a gig under aviation a few months ago.

Hi there profile managers! We plan on featuring the Red Baron in the Connection finder on August 19th. Between now and then is a good time to take a look at the sources and biography to see if there are updates and improvements that need made, especially those that will bring it up to WikiTree Style Guide standards. I'll take a final look at the profile late tomorrow make changes as necessary.

Thanks! Abby

I started and connected up a profile for Ferdinand Foch.

+9 votes
Some that come to mind from Australia are:

*[[https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/McNamara-2397 Frank McNamara VC CB CBE BA]]

*[[https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/McCay-71 Sir Jim McKay KCMG KBE]]

*[[https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Birks-271 Frederick Birks VC MM]]
by Kenneth Evans G2G6 Pilot (247k points)
+9 votes
there  is https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Freyberg-1

or https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Von_Trapp-1

not mentioned there is he was a highly decorated WW1  Naval Officer  and was a recipient of  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Order_of_Maria_Theresa
by anonymous G2G6 Mach 9 (96.8k points)
edited by anonymous
+6 votes

I would like to nominate 

Maj. Gen. Kenneth Trevor (Trev) Sawyer 

Sawyer-6199 

WWII, Korea, Vietnam (4 tours). Commanding Officer of Army Corp of Engineers in Alaska during the Black Friday earthquake.  

Awards 

Silver Star, Legion of Merit w/4 OLC. Bronze Star w/OLC and V device, Air medal w/attached numerals 2  Army Commendation (ARCOM) w/1 attached Oak Leaf Cluster, Purple Heart.  American Defense, American Campaign, Unknown Award w/2 devices, WW2 Victory, WW2 Occupation, National Defense w/attachment star, Korean Service, Armed Forces Expeditionary, Vietnam Service w/4 service star device attachment. Republic of Korea, Cultural Merit Medal. Eungwan 2nd, United Nations Korean Service, Republic of Vietnam Campaign w/1960 bar device 

1968 he was selected to receive the Wheeler Award of the Society of Military Engineers for having made the greatest individual contribution during 1967 to the advancement of Military Engineers.

by Jeff Michaelsen G2G6 Mach 2 (28.7k points)
+6 votes

I created a profile for the German Chief of General Staff at the beginning of the Great War Hellmuth von Moltke. He will show up as connected by tomorrow morning. I will try to find stuff to write a biography for his wife too.

by Jelena Eckstädt G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)

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