Dugald Macfadyen
British clergyman and writer
Reverend Dugald Macfadyen MA, FRHistS, (25 December 1867 – 23 July 1936), was a British Clergyman, Liberal Party candidate and writer.
Background
Macfadyen was born the son of John Allison Macfadyen and Elizabeth Anderson. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School, Merton College, Oxford and Mansfield College, Oxford. In 1894 he married Mary Olivia Goulty. They had one son and two daughters. She died in 1912. In 1915 he married Edith Barnett Bates.
Political career
Macfadyen was First Secretary of the Council for Higher Education in North Staffordshire. He was a member of Hanley County Borough Education Committee. He was Chairman of the League of Nations Union, Letchworth Branch.
“Dugald Macfadyen” enters the record as british clergyman and writer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Dugald, Macfadyen and British can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Dugald Macfadyen” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Dugald, Macfadyen and British provides the most credible route into that argument.
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 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18910264. VIAF identifies the subject as 41542314. The Library of Congress control number is no2004001491. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1867, 1936, 1894 and 1912.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. 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 “Dugald Macfadyen”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Dugald Macfadyen primary sources, Dugald Macfadyen archive and Dugald 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 “Dugald Macfadyen”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Dugald Macfadyen” 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.