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Research dossier · General Reference

Tom Smith (fencer)

Irish fencer

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ7817621 ↗
Source-derived summary

Tom Smith (23 February 1923 – 23 February 1995) was an Irish fencer. He competed in the individual and team foil events at the 1948 Summer Olympics.

He died on 23 February 1995, on his 72th birthday.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Tom Smith (fencer)” is irish fencer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Smith, fencer and Irish, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1923, 1995, 1948—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1923-02-23. For this dossier, Smith, fencer and Irish is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “irish fencer” 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

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7817621. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1923, 1995 and 1948.

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 “Tom Smith (fencer)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Tom Smith (fencer) primary sources, Tom Smith (fencer) 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 “Tom Smith (fencer)”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Tom Smith (fencer)” 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.