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Arthur Otway

British politician (1822–1912)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ7526079 ↗
Source-derived summary

Sir Arthur John Otway, 3rd Baronet PC (8 August 1822 – 8 June 1912) was a British barrister and Liberal politician as well as a champion of administrative reform regarding India.

Background, education and early life

Otway was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, the fourth son of Admiral Sir Robert Otway, 1st Baronet. He was brought up along with the rest of his family in Kemp Town, an estate of Brighton, England. At the age of six, he began his education at Marlborough Place. Following that, he travelled to France and Germany, and eventually began education at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Naturally, his first career was in the military. In 1839, he signed on as an ensign of the 51st Yorkshire Light Infantry, which was then stationed in Australia. After two years' service, he was promoted to the 2nd Queen's Regiment, stationed in India. He served with that regiment for approximately five more years, until 1846, at which time he retired from the Army. After his time in the military, he began to study law at the Middle Temple, one of London's four Inns of Court; in 1850 he was called to the Bar.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Arthur Otway” is british politician (1822–1912). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Arthur, Otway and British, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1822, 1912, 1839, 1846—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1822-08-08. For this dossier, Arthur, Otway and British is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “british politician (1822–1912)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7526079. VIAF identifies the subject as 63613590. The Library of Congress control number is no97039630. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1822, 1912, 1839 and 1846.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

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  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Arthur Otway”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Arthur Otway primary sources, Arthur Otway archive and Arthur research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Arthur Otway” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.