CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
EN/FR
Search
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

List of shadow holders of the Great Offices of State

Wikimedia list article

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ6638327 ↗
Source-derived summary

This is a list shadow holders of the Great Offices of State in the United Kingdom's Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet since Hugh Gaitskell's Shadow Cabinet of 1955. The purpose of the Shadow Cabinet is to scrutinise the opposing ministers, develop alternate policies, and hold the government to account for its actions in a form of checks and balances. The Opposition Shadow Cabinet is made up of about 20 ministers from the largest opposition party.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “List of shadow holders of the Great Offices of State” as wikimedia list article. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around List, shadow and holders.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1955—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with List, shadow and holders providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “List of shadow holders of the Great Offices of State”, the useful work is to connect “wikimedia list article” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6638327. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1955.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. 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

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “List of shadow holders of the Great Offices of State”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow List of shadow holders of the Great Offices of State primary sources, List of shadow holders of the Great Offices of State archive and List 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

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “List of shadow holders of the Great Offices of State”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “List of shadow holders of the Great Offices of State” 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.