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Ned Richardson

Australian rules footballer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 18, 2025
Entity authorityQ6986085
Source-derived summary

Nicholas Thomas "Ned" Richardson (26 May 1886 – 19 January 1929) was an Australian rules footballer who played with Fitzroy, Richmond and Essendon in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

Richardson, a half back from Beverley, had two stints in the VFL. He started out at Fitzroy but could only manage two appearances. When he returned to the league in 1913, at Richmond, he immediately became a regular member of the side, with 16 games for the year. He switched clubs during the 1915 VFL season but then had to sit out of league football for two years, as Essendon went into a war imposed recess. He resumed at Essendon in 1918 and was one of only two players from his club to appear in all 14 rounds.

Richardson also had a noted professional running career, specialising in middle-distance events.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ned Richardson” is australian rules footballer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Richardson, Australian and rules, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1886, 1929, 1913, 1915—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1886-05-26. For this dossier, Richardson, Australian and rules is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “australian rules footballer” 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.

Evidence profile

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 May 18, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q6986085. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1886, 1929, 1913 and 1915.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. 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.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

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 “Ned Richardson”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ned Richardson primary sources, Ned Richardson archive and Richardson 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 “Ned Richardson”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Ned Richardson” 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.