Project grants/Edwin Lutyens and Charles Sargeant Jagger

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Basic information

Project Title (If applicable)
Edwin Lutyens and Charles Sargeant Jagger
Proposed by
Harry Mitchell en:User:HJ Mitchell
Are you currently a member of Wikimedia UK?
No. You're welcome to the £5 and if it's is a dealbreaker I'll join but I prefer not to be involved in governance

Project description

Briefly describe the issue or problem that motivates this application. What needs are you meeting?
I have been writing and improving Wikipedia articles about war memorials for about three years and have produced 14 featured articles, many of which are illustrated with my own photos (thanks in part to a previous grant from WMUK). I have largely focused so far on war memorials by one architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens, the designer of London's cenotaph among multiple others (see en:User:HJ Mitchell/War memorials for a list of articles. The source material for these articles is a pile of books I purchased myself after a grant request in 2016 stalled. My project has reached a point where I'm writing articles about some of the most important and famous war memorials in Britain, which requires source material beyond my price range. I would like Wikimedia UK to purchase three books on my behalf:
Describe project activities. What will you use the funding to do?
Possession of these books will assist me in taking four articles through the featured article candidates process (FAC) in the short to medium term: en:Arch of Remembrance, en:Southampton Cenotaph, en:The Cenotaph, Whitehall, and en:Royal Artillery War Memorial.
  • Lutyens (Robert) contains important details about the architect's use of geometry and is cited by other sources in relation to the Arch of Remembrance. In the longer term I'd like to revamp the article on Edwin Lutyens since I already own most of the material published about him and this book will be vital to that.
  • Carden-Coyne contains important details about Lutyens' use of classical architecture and abstract memorialism, using Southampton Cenotaph as a case study; I've already used all the information I can glean from Google Books previews. It also contains several paragraphs on the Arch of Remembrance which will be helpful to that article. It further contains brief studies of several other war memorials I've already written about (including en:Manchester Cenotaph and en:Rochdale Cenotaph (both featured articles) and at least one more (en:Midland Railway War Memorial) whose article needs significant work. This book will be essential in meeting the featured article criteria, specifically 1b (comprehensive) and 1c (well-researched) for several articles.
  • Compton contains an entire chapter contrasting the Whitehall Cenotaph (and Lutyens' memorials in general) with the Royal Artillery Memorial (probably the two most famous and iconic war memorials in London). It will be useful as background for Southampton and essential for Whitehall—the next article I intend to revamp—and the Royal Artillery Memorial, which I intend to finish off after Whitehall.
In the longer term, the books will enable improvements to multiple other articles including other war memorials by Jagger or Lutyens, biographies of the architects, their other works, and (in the case of Carden-Coyne) war memorials in general including those by others.
This helps to enable "the widest possible public access to, use of and contribution to Open Content of an encyclopaedic or educational nature or of similar utility to the general public" (per WMUK's objects) by taking existing knowledge and putting it into an open, accessible format in the from of high-quality Wikipedia articles.
Describe your plan for evaluating this project. How will you measure success? What types of things will you measure (e.g. content, participants)?
I will continue to maintain my subpage listing improvements made to articles. If desired, I can periodically list such improvements on this page or anywhere else desired.
Identify key people involved in this project. How will or could the wider Wikimedian community be involved?
Only me (Harry Mitchell). Wider community participation comes during the review processes, though it is possible that some articles will be written in collaboration with other editors. Other community members have been immensely helpful during the project by providing access to journal articles or by uploading open-licenced photographs.
If applicable, identify partnering organisations for this project (not essential)
N/A at present

If you feel that there is more information that could be for example resources needed, how successes can be measured, and how it fits in with the aims of Wikimedia and Wikimedia UK. Please note that these answers don't have to be definite now, and can be expanded on in conversation with the programme team.

What targets have you set? What will you measure?
I would consider the project complete when the four named articles have been listed as featured articles (depending on the review processes and ow quickly I write, this could potentially take up to a year though six months is probably more likely). It is entirely possible that other articles could be improved using these sources in the longer term but this is too far in the future to be able to set firm goals. Possible metrics included bytes/words added to articles (likely to be in the thousands of words when the four articles listed are complete), number of articles improved, and number of featured articles (minimum of four).
What contribution will the project make to our strategic goals?
"1. Our work has significantly increased access to knowledge about, or held in, the UK": Multiple featured articles and new or improved encyclopaedia content on at least four war memorials in the UK, providing greater access to knowledge about these subjects.
"2. The Wikimedia projects reflect our diverse society and are free from systemic bias": Although these articles do not themselves cover an under-represented part of our society, I would argue that enhancing knowledge will itself help to reduce systemic bias as a broader encyclopaedia can accommodate a broader range of subjects, including under-represented ones. It is also worth noting that two of the requested books are by female academics (a group under-represented on Wikipedia).
Who will be recording/measuring the project metrics, and writing up a project report?
As noted above, I will continue to maintain my subpage and report on the project in any desired venue
What staff support is being requested?
Negligible. Only the time necessary to purchase the books and have them sent to me (probably less than 15 minutes).
How can you get other volunteers involved? What roles could they have?
Not really applicable, but see above under How will or could the wider Wikimedian community be involved?
What meeting or other space is needed?
N/A
Are other resources needed (such as computers, books, camera equipment, food, contacts, infrastructure)? How will they be sourced?
N/A
If any partner organisations have been identified, have they been contacted and are they committed?
N/A
Does this project require more extensive funding? What would any WMUK funds be used for?
There may be a requirement for more books in the future, but these can either be purchased myself or subject to a separate grant request.
Are external funds needed that we can apply for? If so where will they be sought?
N/A
Are there any resources that you can contribute? Such as equipment.
I am contributing considerable amounts of my own time, using my own computer and Internet access. I have already invested considerable sums of my own money in source material so far.


This grant request can now be considered closed. The use of these books was invaluable in research for my war memorials project, and contributed directly to the articles on Southampton Cenotaph, the Royal Artillery Memorial, the Great Western Railway War Memorial, Portsmouth War Memorial, and The Cenotaph, all of which are now featured articles. Access to these books helped to satisfy featured article criteria 1b ("comprehensive") and 1c ("well-researched", "a thorough and representative survey of the relevant literature"). The books have also contributed to background research on these two renowned designers of war memorials and may well be useful for other featured articles in the future. Harry Mitchell (talk) 20:32, 19 July 2022 (BST)

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