Richard Peterson (fencer)
New Zealand fencer, sports administrator and lawyer
Richard Dale Peterson (14 January 1940 – 12 January 2018) was a New Zealand fencer and lawyer. He represented his country at the 1966 and 1970 British Commonwealth Games, and won 12 New Zealand national fencing titles across three disciplines. A commercial lawyer in Wellington, Peterson and his wife Hilary established clubs to support sufferers of dementia.
Early life and family
Born in Wellington on 14 January 1940, Peterson was the son of Basil and Ruth Peterson. His father worked for Wellington City Council and finished his career as the city's town clerk. Richard Peterson was educated at Khandallah School, Scots College, and then Nelson College as a boarder from 1953 to 1957. An accomplished musician, he was the school pianist at Nelson College. Peterson went on to study law at Victoria University of Wellington, completing a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1961 and a Master of Laws by examination in 1963.
Peterson first met his wife, Hilary Taylor, while travelling to Britain by ship in 1963. They eventually married and had three children.
“Richard Peterson (fencer)” enters the record as new Zealand fencer, sports administrator and lawyer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Richard, Peterson and fencer can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Richard Peterson (fencer)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Richard, Peterson and fencer provides the most credible route into that argument.
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 Aug 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q109621471. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1940, 2018, 1966 and 1970.
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 “Richard Peterson (fencer)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Richard Peterson (fencer) primary sources, Richard Peterson (fencer) archive and Richard 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 “Richard Peterson (fencer)”?
- 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 “Richard Peterson (fencer)” 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.