The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was speedy delete. Looks like it deleted itself... Missvain (talk) 06:14, 11 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Ernest Barttelot Huffington-Smyth[edit]

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Possible hoax. I accepted this from WP:AfC back in March. On the surface, it looks like a well-written article with lots of good sources, which just happen to not be on-line. Fast forward to today, when I got this surprising note on my talk page, describing the article as a hoax. I have no idea if it is or not.

On the one hand, I can't find anything in Google for Ernest Barttelot Huffington-Smyth, other than things which are obviously traceable back to us. The one source I've been able to find on-line is Helen Bones' PhD thesis. The basic facts stated in the article are indeed backed up by the thesis, but none of that actually confirms the subject exists. The Barttelot family, and Stopham house, appear to be real, but no evidence of Ernest.

Just to add an additional twist, the note on my talk page was removed a few minutes after it was posted. -- RoySmith (talk) 22:09, 7 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm, looks like I fell for this hook, line, and sinker. -- RoySmith (talk) 22:54, 7 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

One of the sources, the Eddie Rickenbacker autobiography, is available in preview on Amazon.com. It does have some rather extensive coverage of a "Walter Smyth", although that doesn't prove any of the other details of the article. I find zero references to any "Huffington-Smyth" either on news archives or in the textual database of the Internet Archive. BD2412 T 22:36, 7 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
- Upon further investigation, the Walter Smyth whom Rickenbacker writes of was killed in an air-to-air collision in 1918, and therefore does not match up with other details in this article. The "Walter Smyth" who was a writer in New Zealand is also a real person (possibly notable), but unconnected to the other biographical elements of this article. BD2412 T 22:42, 7 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Speedy Delete: As a hoax per the article creator [1]. 22:39, 7 January 2020 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Toddst1 (talk • contribs) [reply]
Delete - already deleted, can an admin please close this debate. Bearian (talk) 20:55, 10 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.