Josephine Leslie
Irish author (1898–1979)
Josephine Aimee Campbell Rowley Leslie (8 June 1898 – 28 April 1979) was an Irish writer, usually under the name R. A. Dick, taking the initials from her sea captain father.
Biography
Josephine A. C. Rowley was born in Wexford, Ireland, the daughter of Robert Abercromby Dick Rowley and Josephine Rosling Rowley. Her father died the same year she was born. Her widowed mother, who was born in Surrey, raised her and her older brother, Edward, in England, specifically in Sunninghill, Ealing and Eastbourne. She attended Princess Helena College.
In 1927, Rowley married civil servant Melville Eric Leslie. They had a son and a daughter. Melville Leslie was a colonial administrator in Nyasaland (Malawi) from the 1920s until 1947. Josephine Leslie died in 1979, at the age of 80.
Literary career
Leslie most famously wrote the 1945 novel The Ghost and Mrs.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Josephine Leslie” as irish author (1898–1979). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as irish author (1898–1979). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
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 25, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q3414949. VIAF identifies the subject as 9879472. The Library of Congress control number is nr95034313. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1898, 1979, 1927 and 1947.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. 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 “Josephine Leslie”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Josephine Leslie primary sources, Josephine Leslie archive and Josephine 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 “Josephine Leslie”?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Josephine Leslie” 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.