Nina's Blog - Thursday 13th August 2026
Thursday 13th August 2026, 12:38
Decided to take a stroll through the Attenborough nature reserve. The notices scattered around the reserve say it was opened by Sir David in 1966, but he was simply Mr Attenborough at the time; he became a Knight Bachelor in 1985, almost twenty years later
That makes me wonder about how such notices and even more so online publicly editable encyclopaedias might inadvertently obscure history. With printed encyclopaedias it is easy to consult an older edition but viewing an older edition of, say, Wikipedia is not so straightforward and viewing an older version of an informational notice next to impossible. So people will have the impression that the reserve was opened by a Sir when this is in fact not the case.
Is there a widely followed convention that should be followed when writing or editing such material?
So now I'm wondering, at the time that Sir Francis Drake was doing all his derring do was he a knight or was he knighted afterwards?
And of course another question is: does any of what I have just been musing upon matter and if so to whom?
Edit: I forgot to mention that the reserve is not named after Sir David. The area has been called that, or near enough, since the fourteenth century. However his family is connected to the area and I suppose that was why he was chosen to open it
Decided to take a stroll through the Attenborough nature reserve. The notices scattered around the reserve say it was opened by Sir David in 1966, but he was simply Mr Attenborough at the time; he became a Knight Bachelor in 1985, almost twenty years later
That makes me wonder about how such notices and even more so online publicly editable encyclopaedias might inadvertently obscure history. With printed encyclopaedias it is easy to consult an older edition but viewing an older edition of, say, Wikipedia is not so straightforward and viewing an older version of an informational notice next to impossible. So people will have the impression that the reserve was opened by a Sir when this is in fact not the case.
Is there a widely followed convention that should be followed when writing or editing such material?
So now I'm wondering, at the time that Sir Francis Drake was doing all his derring do was he a knight or was he knighted afterwards?
And of course another question is: does any of what I have just been musing upon matter and if so to whom?
Edit: I forgot to mention that the reserve is not named after Sir David. The area has been called that, or near enough, since the fourteenth century. However his family is connected to the area and I suppose that was why he was chosen to open it
70-79, T
