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William Scammell

British poet

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 revisionSep 13, 2024
Entity authorityQ8018159
Source-derived summary

William Scammell (2 January 1939, in Southampton – 29 November 2000) was a British poet.

Life

He was born into a working-class family in the waterside village of Hythe on Southampton Water, but failed the eleven-plus exam. His brother is Michael Scammell.

He enrolled as a mature student at Bristol University. He taught at the Workers' Educational Association. He moved to the Lake District, with his artist wife, Jackie, and their two sons. In 1975, he moved to Cockermouth to teach at the Newcastle University. In 1991, he taught at Nottingham Trent University.

His work appeared in Granta, and Lives of the Poets,

Awards

1982 Cholmondeley Award

Work

Poetry

—— (1979). Yes and No.

Editorial summary

“William Scammell” enters the record as british poet. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what William, Scammell and British can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1939, 2000, 1975, 1991—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1939-01-02. Its strongest next move is a source search built around William, Scammell and British.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“William Scammell” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, William, Scammell and British provides the most credible route into that argument.

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 Sep 13, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q8018159. VIAF identifies the subject as 94556415. The Library of Congress control number is n80111706. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1939, 2000, 1975 and 1991.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. 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 Scammell”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow William Scammell primary sources, William Scammell 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 Scammell”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from William Scammell” 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.