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Walter Davy Cowan

Canadian politician (1865–1934)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ7964656 ↗
Source-derived summary

Walter Davy Cowan, D.D.S., (31 December 1865 – 28 September 1934) was a Canadian politician in Saskatchewan and Ku Klux Klan member. Cowan served as Mayor of Regina and served as Conservative-Unionist Member of Parliament for Regina from 1917 to 1921 and then as the Conservative MP for Long Lake from 1930 until his death.

A dentist by profession, Cowan was born in Guelph, Canada West, to Scottish immigrants. After his early schooling in Guelph, Cowan attended the University of Maryland, graduating with a degree in dentistry in 1888.

In 1889, he moved to Regina in what was then the Northwest Territories and was one of the first dentists in the region. He organized the first dental association in Canada, the Dental College of the Northwest Territories (later the Dental College of Saskatchewan) and served as its president until 1913.

In 1890, Dr. Cowan was elected to the town council and served for one year. In 1891, he became associated editor of the Dominion Dental Journal. He helped form the National Dental Association in 1904 and served as the organization's president.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Walter Davy Cowan” as canadian politician (1865–1934). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1865, 1934, 1917, 1921—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1865-12-31. The account is most persuasive where Walter, Davy and Cowan can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as canadian politician (1865–1934). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

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 Jun 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7964656. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1865, 1934, 1917 and 1921.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. 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 “Walter Davy Cowan”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Walter Davy Cowan primary sources, Walter Davy Cowan archive and Walter 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 “Walter Davy Cowan”?
  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 “Walter Davy Cowan” 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.