Contribute

This wiki is meant to be edited. Change a soldier page the same way you would edit Wikipedia: the infobox holds the structured facts, and the rest of the article is freeform. You do not need an account.

Class-roster terms, National Archives digitization limits, and Camp Ritchie Museum reproduction rules are on Disclaimer. Research notes on soldier pages may be unverified; replace a bad note with a sourced sentence, or explain the change on the talk page. See also About the data.

Editing

• Anyone can edit or create articles, including while logged out. Use the Edit tab for biography text (visual editor), or Edit source for the full page markup.
• On soldier pages, use Edit soldier facts above the infobox for structured fields (dates, class, teams, nativity) without touching wiki markup.
• Every revision is kept. Bad changes are rolled back from Special:RecentChanges.
• An account is optional. It is only needed if you want to upload a photograph.

Three ways to edit a soldier page

1. Edit soldier facts — form above the infobox for birth/death years, class, teams, nativity, occupation, and similar fields. Safest for corrections to roster data.
2. Edit biography (or the Edit tab) — visual editor for the Life section, research notes, and sources. Works like Wikipedia.
3. Edit source — full wiki markup, including the {{Soldier}} template. For experienced editors only.

Opening summary

On a soldier page, Draft opening summary builds a short 5–10 sentence opening from Personal details in the infobox and the Life biography. It does not use research notes or military-service fields. It does not run by itself. Review the draft, edit it, then Use this summary to replace the opening paragraph. If an AI key is configured on the server, the draft can use that; otherwise it is assembled only from those fields. Do not keep a sentence unless you believe it is supported.

What to add

• Biographies, family recollections, and unit stories, with sources when you have them
• Photographs (see below)
• Corrections to name, ASN, class, dates, or death year
• External links to NARA, Find a Grave, newspapers, or published histories

Photographs and documents

You can upload from each soldier page (Gallery section) or from Special:Upload.

On the soldier page (Gallery section)

1. Log in, open the soldier's page, scroll to Gallery
2. Use the upload box: pick a file, choose profile photo and/or Gallery, click Upload file

Profile photos (infobox portrait)

1. Images: leave Use as profile photo checked
2. Matching filenames like Firstname surname.jpg also appear automatically without uploading again

Other files (PDFs, letters, scans)

1. PDF, Word, plain text, and TIFF uploads are allowed (on the soldier page or Special:Upload)
2. Documents go to the Gallery section, not the infobox

For any upload, state the source and copyright in the upload summary when using Special:Upload. Deleting a file requires an administrator account.

Do not upload files you do not have permission to share.

New topic pages

If you add a page that is not a soldier biography (history, interviews, FAQ, and similar), put [[Category:Ritchie Boys Wiki]] at the bottom. It will then appear under Contents. Soldier pages are indexed A–Z from the infobox and do not need that category.

Infobox fields

Each soldier page is laid out like a Wikipedia biography: a short opening paragraph on the left and a right-hand infobox (portrait, personal details, military service). The opening paragraph starts from the infobox facts. You can edit it in the visual editor like any other sentence. Changing infobox fields with Edit soldier facts updates that paragraph unless you have already rewritten it.

Edit the {{Soldier}} template call at the top of the page. Class numbers for men who attended more than one class are separated by a semicolon, for example 5;11. That keeps Category:Class 5 and similar roster pages in sync.

If you change class or nativity, the categories on that page update from the infobox the next time the page is saved. Add a longer narrative under Life.

Talk pages

Use the article's Talk page when two sources disagree, or when a match looks wrong. Do not silently delete a baseline field unless you have a source; strike or note the old value on Talk.

What not to publish

• Social Security numbers or other modern identity numbers
• Private contact information for living relatives
• Unsourced claims that a living person committed a crime

Some men born in the 1920s may still be living. Keep those articles factual and modest. Family members who want a page trimmed should contact an administrator.

For administrators

Patrol Special:RecentChanges. Rollback obvious vandalism, block repeat spammers, and protect a page only if it is under sustained attack.