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Alic Halford Smith

Philosopher and academic administrator

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionOct 14, 2025
Entity authorityQ4725669 ↗
Source-derived summary

Alic Halford Smith (1883–1958) was a British philosopher and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University.

Alic Smith was educated at Dulwich College in south London and New College, Oxford. He began his career at the Scottish Office (1906–19). Subsequently, he was a Fellow at New College, where he was tutor in philosophy (1919–44), and then Warden (head) of the College (1944–58). Smith was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1954 to 1957. He was also a Fellow of Winchester College and Honorary Fellow of King's College, Cambridge.

Smith was awarded the Freedom of the City of Oxford on 10 February 1955.

References

External links

NRA 4392, Alic Halford Smith, Warden of New College, Oxford: corresp and papers, Reference PA/S.2, The National Archives, UK.

Selected essays and addresses, by Alic Halford Smith. Oxford: Blackwell, 1965.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Alic Halford Smith” as philosopher and academic administrator. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Alic, Halford and Smith.

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—1883, 1958, 1906, 1919—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1883-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Alic, Halford and Smith providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Alic Halford Smith”, the useful work is to connect “philosopher and academic administrator” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

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 Oct 14, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q4725669. VIAF identifies the subject as 4447573. The Library of Congress control number is nb2004309937. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1883, 1958, 1906 and 1919.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Alic Halford Smith” 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.