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William Samuel Fyffe

Unionist politician (1914-1989)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ8009490 ↗
Source-derived summary

William Samuel Fyffe (7 September 1914 – 15 April 1989) was a unionist politician in Northern Ireland.

Born on Gourlieville Terrace in Strabane, Fyffe was the son of Wilson Fyffe, a Solicitors Clerk, and Margaret Cochrane. Fyffe worked as a journalist and became active in the Ulster Unionist Party. He was the Chairman of the North West Cricket Union, and was known for his strident opposition to civil rights marches.

Fyffe was narrowly elected in North Tyrone at the 1969 Northern Ireland general election, serving until the Parliament was prorogued in 1972.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “William Samuel Fyffe” is unionist politician (1914-1989). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through William, Samuel and Fyffe, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1914, 1989, 1969, 1972—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1914-01-01. For this dossier, William, Samuel and Fyffe is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “unionist politician (1914-1989)” 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 Mar 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8009490. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1914, 1989, 1969 and 1972.

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 “William Samuel Fyffe”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow William Samuel Fyffe primary sources, William Samuel Fyffe 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 Samuel Fyffe”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “William Samuel Fyffe” 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.