Talk:Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander

Another Quote

Alexander said something that I think was extremely witty but I am hazy on the detail and reluctant to try to include the following in the article itself -- if someone knows more, it would be nice to add this.

When Alexander was given some honor, he was asked by a reporter whether he was now a Knight. He said something like, "Oh no, barely [or "not even"] a tempo."

Not sure the reporter would have understood the pun, where Alexander is indicating that his value is far less than the chess piece and more close to the advantage of, say, having the first move in chess.--Jrm2007 (talk) 22:19, 28 September 2013 (UTC)

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Cause of untimely death?

The only mention of Alexander's death comes in the form of this rather bizarre claim, made in the final sentence under the heading "Bletchley Park and GCHQ": "Wright also lauded Alexander's professionalism, and opined that the exceptional mental demands of his cryptanalytical career and chess hobby likely contributed to Alexander's early death at age 64, despite his healthy lifestyle." (emphasis added) This is an extraordinary claim. There does not seem to be any medical basis for asserting that "exceptional mental demands", despite a "healthy lifestyle" could cause an early death. The source cited for this is an unspecified passage in Peter Wright's autobiography, Spycatcher. Beyond the obvious question of whether or not Wright was medically qualified to assess what caused Alexander's untimely death is the question of whether or not simply citing a book qualifies as a source for a claim (without reading the entire book one cannot know where -- or even if -- that claim is made). Consequently, I don't think this should be allowed to stand as the sole explanation for Alexander's death at 64; it should either be properly sourced (with a page number and perhaps a quote) and couched as merely Wright's opinion, or a reliable source for his death should be provided, or the claim should be struck entirely. Bricology (talk) 21:10, 27 June 2024 (UTC)