Talk:Richard Lederer (bridge player)

JH (talk page) 19:30, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

Birth and death details

Information about Lederer's birth and death seems frustratingly elusive. A major reason for that is probably that he died during WW2, when British bridge magazines had suspended publication, and newspapers were slimmer because of a shortage of paper and thus less likely to be able to find room for an obituary. The Official Encyclopaedia of Bridge has him as being Hungarian but Guy Ramsay, who knew him, writes that he was born in Bohemia, which - though part of the Austro-Hungarian empire at the time - was not part of Hungary. I searched the England and Wales Register of Deaths, but the only 1941 death that it has for a Richard Lederer gives the dob as "abt. 1886" rather than the 1894 given in the OEB and on the EBU web site. The RoD has the place of death as London, which would fit, but even so I can't be sure that it's the same Richard Lederer, as it's just possible that his death was never registered or that the record was lost. It doesn't give a precise date of death, but it was in the second quarter of the year. But as this seems to be verging on OR on my part, the RoD arguably being a primary rather than a secondary reference, I haven't put it in the article. A search on the 1921 census on FindMyPast also turned up this RL born in 1886, but says that he was born in Lndon which, if correct, would rule him out. A further search turned up a FindaGrave entry showing that a Richard Lederer died on 16 June 1941 and is buried at Willesden United Synagogue Cemetery, which is probably him. JH (talk page) 10:25, 17 March 2024 (UTC)