Talk:Hester Leggatt

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Did you know nomination

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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 History6042 talk 12:59, 17 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

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  • Source: Source: Ben Macintyre's book Operation Mincemeat (https://archive.org/details/operationminceme0000maci) (p 77) "Hester Leggett was certainly fierce and demanding. She never married, and she devoted herself utterly to the job of marshalling a huge quantity of secret paperwork. But into Pam’s love letters, she poured every ounce of pathos and emotion she could muster. These letters may have been the closest Hester Leggett ever came to romance: chattering pastiches of a young woman madly in love, and with little time for grammar." (p 78) "As the official report on Operation Mincemeat acknowledged, Hester Leggett’s effort ‘achieved the thrill and pathos of a war engagement with great success’."
  • ALT1: ... that fans of the musical Operation Mincemeat helped uncover the real-life contributions of MI5 secretary Hester Leggatt to the WWII deception operation of the same name? Source: Source: The Times article by Ben Macintyre titled "How musical fans forced MI5 to come clean" (https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/how-musical-fans-forced-mi5-to-come-clean-0xsnrvwvz?region=global) Quote: "Musical theatre spawns a peculiarly obsessive fan base and this is particularly true of Operation Mincemeat: some have seen the show dozens of times, others dress up in costume and a few dive deep into the history. Hester plays a key role in the musical and a group of diehard fans, calling themselves “The Mincefluencers”, set out to track her down. Starting last June, they (“they” include teachers, solicitors, people in cybersecurity and Big Tech, a cancer research scientist, someone in the ambulance service, a barrister plus — as you’d expect — authors and creatives) began scouring the National Archives at Kew and the Imperial War Museum, conducting open-source investigations, attempting to locate potential relatives and pooling their research on a private server. They used the hashtag #FindingHester. They wrote to MI5, asking for confirmation that she had worked in the wartime security services. Gradually, the real woman took shape. It seemed that Hester was not Leggett, which was how Jean had spelt her name to me, but Hester May Murray Leggatt, with an “a”. She was born in India in 1905, to a family with a tradition of military service, attended Tormead and Wycombe Abbey schools, and played the piano. Surviving samples of her handwriting appear to match that of the “Pam” letters."
  • Reviewed:
Created by Engrigg22 (talk). Number of QPQs required: 0. Nominator has fewer than 5 past nominations.

Engrigg22 (talk) 22:20, 29 April 2025 (UTC).[reply]

  • This is a really well written and needed article, well done! Sourcing and earwig don't show any issues and QPQ isn't needed. I think either hook is fine but I prefer hook #1. I think the "despite never marrying herself" could be removed but I am not fussed if it stays. This is good to go, well done! DaniloDaysOfOurLives (talk) 20:36, 1 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]


'Mincemeat' letters

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We can't write this as a hard fact as it's disputed in the sources. We can write that a journalist has said it, but we need to also mention that the historian Denis Smyth identifies the author as Paddy Bennett, later Lady Ridsdale, as the author. - SchroCat (talk) 06:55, 19 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I am agreed on this Eddie891 Talk Work 09:39, 19 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
This is a good flag, thank you for raising! The upcoming research book may also add clarification to this, but that won't be out for another few weeks. To be added to this section of the article: something like "journalist Ben Macintyre said she wrote the letters based on interview testimony of other MI5 secretaries and additional research after the book was published supports this theory (the handwriting analysis and documentation in the NYT or The Times article about the research campaign for example). However, this has been disputed; scholar Denis Smyth claimed in an earlier book that the author of the letters was Paddy Bennett." I can add later this week if no one else has managed to edit by then (out of the country, no laptop, bad timing) but anyone who wants to please go ahead and make these changes! Unfortunate this issue didn't come up before it made the front page but c'est la vie. Engrigg22 (talk) 13:11, 19 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Reliability of Broadwayworld

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Hi @SchroCat, while I agree that generally Broadwayworld is unreliable, I don't think there's any reason this specific blog entry can't be used here. Indeed, to me it seems like a textbook instance where WP:ABOUTSELF applies: It's primarily sourcing that Edwards was involved in the Mincefluencers 'research' campaign. Why would we not trust her own statement on this? If it's not encyclopedic, it should be removed. I just don't think that tag applies here. Eddie891 Talk Work 09:38, 19 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Then it would be better to remove it. If it's not covered in a reliable secondary source then it's a sign it's not worth retaining, particularly as it's trivia when compared to Leggatt's life. Given it also refers to activities of individuals, it is also on shaky BLP grounds. - SchroCat (talk) 10:11, 19 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
It is perfectly acceptable to use someone's statement about themselves to cite something about that person. I'm not sure how that is on shaky BLP grounds. Eddie891 Talk Work 10:26, 19 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]