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.
• 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.

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

Create an account, then:

1. Use Special:Upload
2. Name the file Firstname surname.jpg (for example Kurt kugelmann.jpg). The infobox picks up a matching file automatically; you can also set |photo=Filename.jpg in {{Soldier}}
3. State the source and who holds the copyright in the upload summary
4. Optional: add [[File:Example.jpg|thumb|caption]] under Gallery for extra images

Deleting an uploaded file requires an administrator account. Log in, then use Delete on the file page.

Do not upload images 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 is generated from the infobox, so correcting those fields updates the lead.

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.