Sergeant Neil Howie
E459221
Sergeant Neil Howie is the devoutly Christian Scottish police officer whose investigation of a missing girl on a remote pagan island drives the central mystery and horror of the 1973 film "The Wicker Man."
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Sergeant Neil Howie canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4625707 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Sergeant Neil Howie Context triple: [The Wicker Man (1973 film), character, Sergeant Neil Howie]
-
A.
Sergeant Thomas Durrant
Sergeant Thomas Durrant was a British Army non-commissioned officer of the Second World War who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his extraordinary bravery during the St Nazaire raid in 1942.
-
B.
Sergeant Ian McKay
Sergeant Ian McKay was a British Army non-commissioned officer posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his exceptional bravery during the Falklands War.
-
C.
Lance-Corporal James Welch
Lance-Corporal James Welch was a British Army soldier and First World War Victoria Cross recipient renowned for his conspicuous bravery in combat.
-
D.
Sergeant-Major Hewson
Sergeant-Major Hewson was a British military non-commissioned officer noted for his prominent role in the events surrounding the Barrackpore incident of 1857 during the lead-up to the Indian Rebellion.
-
E.
Corporal Henderson
Corporal Henderson is a fictional military character typically depicted as a low-ranking non-commissioned officer, often used as a generic or placeholder name in stories or examples.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Sergeant Neil Howie Target entity description: Sergeant Neil Howie is the devoutly Christian Scottish police officer whose investigation of a missing girl on a remote pagan island drives the central mystery and horror of the 1973 film "The Wicker Man."
-
A.
Sergeant Thomas Durrant
Sergeant Thomas Durrant was a British Army non-commissioned officer of the Second World War who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his extraordinary bravery during the St Nazaire raid in 1942.
-
B.
Sergeant Ian McKay
Sergeant Ian McKay was a British Army non-commissioned officer posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his exceptional bravery during the Falklands War.
-
C.
Lance-Corporal James Welch
Lance-Corporal James Welch was a British Army soldier and First World War Victoria Cross recipient renowned for his conspicuous bravery in combat.
-
D.
Sergeant-Major Hewson
Sergeant-Major Hewson was a British military non-commissioned officer noted for his prominent role in the events surrounding the Barrackpore incident of 1857 during the lead-up to the Indian Rebellion.
-
E.
Corporal Henderson
Corporal Henderson is a fictional military character typically depicted as a low-ranking non-commissioned officer, often used as a generic or placeholder name in stories or examples.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
fictional character
ⓘ
police officer ⓘ |
| appearsIn |
The Wicker Man
ⓘ
linked to:
The Wicker Man (1973 film)
The Wicker Man (1973 film) ⓘ |
| associatedWithTheme |
clash between Christianity and paganism
ⓘ
outsider in a closed community ⓘ religious faith under trial ⓘ |
| characterTrait |
devout
ⓘ
moralistic ⓘ principled ⓘ rigid ⓘ |
| confronts | pagan community on Summerisle ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| createdBy | Anthony Shaffer ⓘ |
| createdFor | The Wicker Man (1973 film) ⓘ |
| denomination | devout Christian ⓘ |
| employer | Scottish police ⓘ |
| faces | ritualistic conspiracy on Summerisle ⓘ |
| fictionalUniverse | The Wicker Man (1973 film) ⓘ |
| filmReleaseYear | 1973 ⓘ |
| finalFate | sacrificed in wicker man effigy ⓘ |
| fullName | Neil Howie ⓘ |
| gender | male ⓘ |
| genreOfWork |
folk horror
ⓘ
horror film ⓘ |
| ideologicalConflictWith | paganism ⓘ |
| investigates | disappearance of Rowan Morrison ⓘ |
| investigativeMethod | formal police procedure ⓘ |
| languageOfWork | English ⓘ |
| medium | film ⓘ |
| moralViewpoint | strict sexual morality ⓘ |
| narrativeFunction | investigator of a missing girl ⓘ |
| nationality | Scottish ⓘ |
| notableFor |
tragic ending
ⓘ
uncompromising religious convictions ⓘ |
| notableScene | final sacrifice in the wicker man structure ⓘ |
| occupation | police officer ⓘ |
| policeJurisdiction | mainland Scotland ⓘ |
| portrayedBy | Edward Woodward ⓘ |
| position | police sergeant ⓘ |
| rank | Sergeant ⓘ |
| religion | Christianity ⓘ |
| roleInWork | protagonist ⓘ |
| settingOfStory | remote Scottish island ⓘ |
| storyRole | central figure of the film's mystery ⓘ |
| symbolizes | Christian moral authority ⓘ |
| travelsTo | Summerisle ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Sergeant Neil Howie Description of subject: Sergeant Neil Howie is the devoutly Christian Scottish police officer whose investigation of a missing girl on a remote pagan island drives the central mystery and horror of the 1973 film "The Wicker Man."
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.