Template:Did you know nominations/Jacques Lewis

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Kimikel talk 13:00, 1 November 2024 (UTC)

Jacques Lewis

  • Source: "Believed to be the last surviving Frenchman to wade ashore with Americans, he was attached to an Army unit that stormed Utah Beach and helped drive Germans out of France."
NY Times
Created by Thriley (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 139 past nominations.

Thriley (talk) 16:32, 18 August 2024 (UTC). Review

General: Article is new enough and long enough

Policy compliance:

Hook eligibility:

  • Cited: No - The NYT source does not support the hook as written because it only covers the US landings but there were British and Canadian beaches on D-Day too. A claim of first/last is a flag Redflag and so needs excellent verification.
  • Interesting: Yes
  • Other problems: No - "Believed" is a weasel word and/or expression of doubt. If this is a definite fact, as it should be, then we should state it as such without such tentative language.

QPQ: No - Not provided yet. done Note current discussions about limiting nominations on credit like this.
Overall: I'm not sure of the formal status of translations but this review template asks Is the article free of material copied from other sources? and it isn't. The article seemed to need some copy-editing and so further work of that kind may soften the issue. Andrew🐉(talk) 10:04, 20 August 2024 (UTC)

Thank you for your review. Will fix up shortly. Thriley (talk) 21:47, 25 August 2024 (UTC)

ALT1... that Jacques Lewis, a 105 year old French veteran of D-Day, insisted that he participate in a ceremony commemorating the invasion's 80th anniversary? Thriley (talk) 20:55, 6 September 2024 (UTC)

@Andrew Davidson: Have your concerns been addressed, and does this hook work? If not, what else needs to be done to get this approved? Z1720 (talk) 14:28, 17 September 2024 (UTC)
The QPQ has been done and the ALT1 hook seems ok. I raised the issue of translation at WT:DYK but, iirc, most responders didn't seem to be bothered about this.
Looking at the article, I notice that the lead is too short, being just one sentence, and there's just a generic section title of "Biography" which isn't helpful to the reader. So, some copy-editing still seems needed. I'll keep a tab open and make a pass through it myself to see if that helps or turns up any issues. More anon...
Andrew🐉(talk) 14:53, 17 September 2024 (UTC)
  • Regarding "believed", the is what the New York Times states. It is extremely unlikely there are any other living French vets of the American landings on D-Day. I'll change it to "was" if there are no objections. Thriley (talk) 20:49, 19 September 2024 (UTC)
  • I can't find a single WP:RS which says he was the last survivor. On the other hand, I've found plenty of sources (both American and French) which equivocate with "believed to be", "one of", or similar.[1][2][3][4][5] so we should do the same. RoySmith (talk) 22:16, 24 September 2024 (UTC)
@RoySmith: I have changed it to "believed to be" Thriley (talk) 20:07, 30 September 2024 (UTC)
  • @Thriley, Andrew Davidson, and RoySmith: What is the status of this nomination? It times out in a few days, so any remaining issues will need to be resolved by then. Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 12:02, 7 October 2024 (UTC)
    • As far as I can tell, Andrew Davidson is doing the review. I just had one drive-by comment to make. RoySmith (talk) 12:48, 7 October 2024 (UTC)
    • Equivocal weasels are not adequate for a claim of being last. Note that Macron made no such claim in his eulogy after the subject's death. As stated above, I'm ok with the ALT1 hook but not the first one. Andrew🐉(talk) 21:13, 7 October 2024 (UTC)
      • I have striked the initial hook. Thriley (talk) 16:49, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
        • It would be nice if this could run on November 11 which is Veterans Day in the United States. Thriley (talk) 16:54, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
          • I concur that Remembrance Day on 11 November is an appropriate special occasion request for this nomination. Flibirigit (talk) 17:52, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
          • Yes, that's a good idea. As we have consensus about the hook now, here's a tick to make it official. Andrew🐉(talk) 19:50, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
            • Approved nomination has been placed in the special occasion holding area for November 11. Flibirigit (talk) 20:28, 8 October 2024 (UTC)