MiSC/WEB WiZARDY: My First Wikipedia Edit!

Marcus De La Poer Beresford.

I’ve tried to edit Wikipedia entries before. But for reasons I now forget, I’ve never succeeded. Until today. I had to register anew. Bit of a pain. But once done, I created my first contribution to Wikipedia. Of which I’m very proud, and pleased as Punch!*

What exactly is it? I hear nobody ask me… well, it’s the addition of the 2022 book, listed below, in the bibliography section of Wikipedia’s entry on Marcus Hugh Tristram de la Poer Beresford, 7th Baron Decies, an Anglo-Irish hereditary peer.

Why? Because I’ve just read – and will shortly be reviewing – de la Poer Beresford’s very good book, Peninsular and Waterloo General: Sir Denis Pack and the War Against Napoleon.

A terrific book.

With the author sharing the Beresford surname with one of Pack’s fellow Napoleonic-era generals, I decided I’d check if they were related. They are. And it turns out Marcus’ previous Napoleonic history book was all about his illustrious ancestor:

Something else I’d like to read.

It also transpired that the bibliography on the Wiki page wasn’t up to date. Berefords’s Denis Pack book wasn’t listed. So I fixed that.

Polichinello/Polichinelle(?).

I’ve never really been that interested in the Commedia del’Arte (my pal Tim is!). Until now. Why so? Well, it turns out our Punch, of Punch n’ Judy fame, is a bastardised descendent of the Commedia character Polichinello (also sometimes spelled Polichinelle).

Anyway, I hope that now I can start contributing more to Wikipedia. We shall see, I suppose?

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