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James Workman (writer)

Australian actor and writer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 3, 2026
Entity authorityQ30600590 ↗
Source-derived summary

James Workman (4 February 1912 – 28 March 2001) was a Scottish-born actor and writer who mostly worked in Australia.

Biography

Early life

Workman was born in Scotland in Cove House, Ecclefechan in 1912. In 1914 his family moved to London and he attended a convent school. Workman left school relatively early and attended the HMS Conway a school ship which trained people for the merchant navy. He worked as a sailor for four years on ships such as The City of Exeter and various freighters. Workman then became a policeman in London and started acting in plays in his spare time. He left the police force when he was twenty five. He wrote novels in England.

Africa

Workman moved to South Africa, originally intending to becoming a miner at Benoni, but these plans were thwarted when he realised his lung capacity did not allow him to work underground. He moved to Lourenço Marques in Portuguese East Africa, where he worked for an English-language radio station, announcing and writing scripts, including five-minute serials.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “James Workman (writer)” as australian actor and writer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around James, Workman and writer.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1912, 2001, 1914—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1912-02-04. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with James, Workman and writer providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “James Workman (writer)”, the useful work is to connect “australian actor and writer” 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 May 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q30600590. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1912, 2001 and 1914.

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.

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 “James Workman (writer)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow James Workman (writer) primary sources, James Workman (writer) archive and James 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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  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “James Workman (writer)” 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.