Bob Whitelaw
Scottish-born Canadian ice hockey player
Robert Whitelaw (October 5, 1916 – October 6, 1972) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played 32 games in the National Hockey League with the Detroit Red Wings during the 1940–41 and 1941–42 seasons. The rest of his career, which lasted from 1936 to 1948, was mainly spent in the minor leagues. Whitelaw was born in Motherwell, Scotland, United Kingdom and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Bob Whitelaw” is scottish-born Canadian ice hockey player. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Whitelaw, Scottish-born and Canadian, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “scottish-born Canadian ice hockey player” 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.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 12, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q4934368. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1916, 1972, 1940 and 1941.
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.
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.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Bob Whitelaw”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Bob Whitelaw primary sources, Bob Whitelaw archive and Whitelaw research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Bob Whitelaw”?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Bob Whitelaw” 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.