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Research dossier · People & Ideas

Ray Smith (footballer, born 1934)

footballer ( 1934-2024)

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 revisionAug 12, 2025
Entity authorityQ27922742 ↗
Source-derived summary

Harold Raymond Smith (13 September 1934 – 21 November 2024) was an English footballer who played as an inside forward. He scored 43 goals from 148 appearances in the Football League playing for Hull City, Peterborough United, Northampton Town and Luton Town. Smith also scored 75 goals from 115 appearances in the Midland League for Peterborough before their admission to the Football League in 1960.

Smith died at a hospital in Peterborough, on 21 November 2024, at the age of 90.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Ray Smith (footballer, born 1934)” as footballer ( 1934-2024). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1934, 2024, 1960—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1934-09-13. The account is most persuasive where Smith, footballer and born can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as footballer ( 1934-2024). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 12, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q27922742. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1934, 2024 and 1960.

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.

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 Smith (footballer, born 1934)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ray Smith (footballer, born 1934) primary sources, Ray Smith (footballer, born 1934) archive and Smith 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 Smith (footballer, born 1934)”?
  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 “Ray Smith (footballer, born 1934)” 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.