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Ray Getliffe

Canadian ice hockey player (1914–2008)

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 revisionJul 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ3420518
Source-derived summary

Raymond Getliffe (April 3, 1914 – June 15, 2008) was a Canadian professional ice hockey left winger who played 10 seasons in the National Hockey League for the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens. Born in Galt, Ontario (now Cambridge, Ontario), he played with the Saint John St. Peters. At the time of his death, he was believed to be the oldest living former Montreal Canadiens player. Getliffe's name is on the Stanley Cup twice, for 1939 with Boston and 1944 with Montreal. On February 6, 1943, while playing for the Canadiens he scored five goals in one game.

After finishing his playing career, Getliffe briefly officiated in the NHL. Retired from hockey, Getliffe and his wife Lorna remained in Montreal until moving to London, Ontario in 1990, where he grew up.

Getliffe died in London of liver cancer at age 94. At the time of his death, reports claimed that he was the oldest living NHL alumnus, about four months older than ex-New York Ranger and Chicago Blackhawk Clint Smith. These reports, however, overlooked players who had only played a certain number of games, such as Louis Holmes and Al Suomi.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ray Getliffe” is canadian ice hockey player (1914–2008). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Getliffe, Canadian and hockey, not as a finished interpretation.

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—1914, 2008, 1939, 1944—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1914-04-03. For this dossier, Getliffe, Canadian and hockey is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “canadian ice hockey player (1914–2008)” 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 Jul 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3420518. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1914, 2008, 1939 and 1944.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. 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 “Ray Getliffe”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ray Getliffe primary sources, Ray Getliffe archive and Getliffe 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 “Ray Getliffe”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Ray Getliffe” 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.