CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

William Marshall Fordham

British general

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 3, 2026
Entity authorityQ18639226 ↗
Source-derived summary

Brigadier William Marshall Fordham CB CBE (9 August 1875 – 9 December 1959) was a senior British Indian Army officer who served during the First World War.

Born on 9 August 1875, William Marshall Fordham was educated at Bedford School, between 1887 and 1893, and at Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He served on the North West Frontier, between 1897 and 1898, in China during the Boxer Rebellion, in 1900, during the First World War, between 1914 and 1918, and in Waziristan, between 1922 and 1923.

He was Aide-de-camp to King George V between 1930 and 1932 and Commander of the 1st Infantry Brigade, in Abbottabad, India between 1928 and 1932.

He retired from the British Indian Army in 1932.

Fordham was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1924 and Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1928.

He died in Felixstowe on 9 December 1959.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “William Marshall Fordham” as british general. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

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—1875, 1959, 1887, 1893—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1875-08-09. The account is most persuasive where William, Marshall and Fordham can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as british general. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

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 May 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18639226. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1875, 1959, 1887 and 1893.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. 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 “William Marshall Fordham”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow William Marshall Fordham primary sources, William Marshall Fordham archive and William 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 “William Marshall Fordham”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “William Marshall Fordham” 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.