Captain
| Rank | Captain |
|---|---|
| Known as | “Skipwith” |
THIS MAN WAS ON THE ROLL TWICE, UNDER TWO SPELLINGS, AND THE TWO HAVE BEEN MERGED (2026). He appeared as “Skipworth, D.”, from the IWM Nominal Roll of the LRDG Association, July 1945, and as “Skipwith, David J.”, from the LRDG Preservation Society’s Troopers roll. IN FAVOUR OF ONE MAN: the initial D matches, and the two entries come from TWO DIFFERENT SOURCES, which is the ordinary way a single man becomes two records. The difference in rank is no difficulty at all — the IWM roll is dated July 1945 and shows a Lieutenant, Chard’s compilation shows a Captain, which is simply the same man later. AGAINST IT, AND IT IS NOT A SMALL OBJECTION: SKIPWITH AND SKIPWORTH ARE BOTH REAL AND SEPARATE ENGLISH SURNAMES, and they differ by two characters rather than one. On that reasoning this roll deliberately did NOT merge “Manfield” and “Maxfield”, and recorded the question on both cards instead. THE DIFFERENT DECISION HERE WAS TAKEN KNOWINGLY. WHICH CARD SURVIVED, AND WHY IT MATTERS: this entry is the IWM one. The IWM roll of July 1945 is a CONTEMPORARY DOCUMENT, made at the time by the Association itself; Chard’s roll is a later compilation from many sources. Where they disagree on the spelling of the name, the contemporary document was preferred. TWO FIELDS WERE RAISED FROM THE OTHER CARD RATHER THAN MERELY FILLED, and they are named here so that nothing on this card is claimed that was not actually done: forename 'D.' -> 'David J.'; rank 'Lieutenant' -> 'Captain'. Everything else was filled only where this card was empty. THE SPELLING THAT WAS REMOVED IS KEPT AS AN AKA, so that a reader searching for “Skipwith” — which may be the only spelling a family knows — still finds him. THE GAZETTE CANNOT ARBITRATE: neither spelling returns a single notice, and neither entry carries a service number.
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Not By Strength But By Guile