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 | This page in a nutshell: It should not be assumed that the date an individual's death is announced is the date they died. Make no presumptions about the date (or the month) – wait for sources to explicitly state the date of death. |
An Auntie Mabel edit is where an editor adds the date of death of a recently deceased person despite there being no verifiable date of death. The edit comes about because the subject's death is announced and the editor infers that the date of the announcement is the same as the date of death. Such edits, despite almost always being made in good faith, are violations of the verifiability policy.
Although the date of death is sometimes (if not often) the same as the date of the announcement, there have been cases where Auntie Mabel edits have been made to articles and it has later transpired that the subject died on a different date.[a] For this reason, editors should be vigilant and avoid edits that state (or imply) something that is not yet verified by reliable sources.
The name "Auntie Mabel" comes from a 1990s children's TV character portrayed by Lynda Baron. Baron's death was reported on 7 March 2022, and her article updated to state that she died on 7 March. Crucially, none of the sourced used explicitly stated when Baron died. The following day, it was announced that Baron had died on 5 March.
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