Darbishire photographs

From TinWiki.org

On 15 February 1954, thirteen-year-old Stephen Darbishire purportedly photographed a UFO near Lake Coniston, Cumbria, England.

This is sometimes referred to as “the Coniston Saucer”.

Contents 1 Stephen Darbishire photograph (15 February 1954) 1.1 The Photographs 1.2 Similarities to Adamski’s photographs 2 Claims to fame 3 The Skeptics 3.1 Clarke and Roberts 4 References to discussions in books 5 External links 6 Relevant Discussion Threads on ATS

Stephen Darbishire photograph (15 February 1954)

During the morning of 15 February 1954, thirteen-year-old Stephen Darbishire purportedly photographed a UFO near Lake Coniston, Cumbria, England while with his eight-year-old cousin Adrian Meyer.

Stephen Darbishire has said that the publicity surrounding the photograph generated years of unwelcome attention. "For two years, every weekend was taken up with people coming and sitting on the lawn. Most of the people who came were sort of on some religious trip, that's the best way to put it. To a 14-year-old, it was a bit of a joke."

Mr Darbishire has claimed that the intensity of this attention explains why he subsequently confessed that the photograph was faked: "I said it was a hoax to get people away but they said you've been got at”. Stephen Darbishire is now a well-known artist.

The Photographs

One of Stephen Darbishire’s photographs

Similarities to Adamski’s photographs

Several researchers (particularly Leonard G Cramp) have suggested that there are considerable similarities between Stephen Darbishire’s photographs and George Adamski’s photographs.

Claims to fame

This photograph has been referred to as “the first UFO photograph ever taken in Britain” (Westmoreland Gazette, 8 October 2004).

As a result of the press coverage of this photograph, Stephen Darbishire and his father were invited to Buckingham Palace to meet one of the Duke of Edinburgh’s private secretaries (the Royal Equerry, RAF Squadron Leader Sir Peter Horsley).

During 2003-2007, Isaac Koi reviewed a sample of 963 UFO and SETI books and noted the frequency with which various UFO cases were discussed. This photograph featured in a list of the top 10 photographic cases (in terms of frequency of discussion). This incident was the tenth most frequently discussed UFO photographic case in the study, with 31 discussions being noted.

The Skeptics

Clarke and Roberts

David Clarke and Andy Roberts have written about these photographs on several occasions. They have:

• drawn attention to Darbishire’s confession of a hoax (and his retraction of that confession), and

• highlighted inconsistent statement by Darbishire as to whether or not he had seen Adamski’s photographs prior to his own sighting.

References to discussions in books

• David Clarke and Andy Roberts in their “Flying Saucerers: A social history of Ufology” (2007) at pages 45-49 (in Chapter 3), 58 (in Chapter 4) of the Alternative Albion softcover edition. [6 page discussion]

• Leonard G Cramp in his “Space, Gravity and the Flying Saucer” (1954) at pages 171-178 (in Chapter 15) of the Werner Laurie hardback edition. [8 page discussion]

• Timothy Good in his “Above Top Secret” (1987) at pages 37 (in Chapter 1), 373-374 (in Chapter 15) of the Sidgwick & Jackson hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Guild Publishing hardback edition and the Grafton paperback edition). [3 page discussion]

• Desmond Leslie in the 1970 revised version of “Flying Saucers Have Landed” (1953) by Desmond Leslie and George Adamski at pages 245-248 (in Part 3, Chapter 1) of the 1970 revised Neville Spearman hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the revised Futura paperback edition). [4 page discussion]

• John Spencer in his “The UFO Encyclopedia” (1991) at page 91 (in an entry entitled “Darbishire, Stephen”) of the Guild hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Avon softcover edition) at page 103 of the Headline paperback edition. [1 page discussion]

• Brinsley Le Poer Trench in his “The Flying Saucer Story” (1966) at pages 46-47 (in Chapter 5) of the revised Tandem paperback edition. [2 page discussion]

• Alan Watts in his “UFO Quest” (1994) at pages 7 (in the Introduction), 43-45 (in Chapter 4) of the Blandford softcover edition. [4 page discussion]

For further references, see the entry dated 1954.0215 in Isaac Koi’s Core Chronology (“KCC”).

External links

• Darbishire photograph in various sizes
  

• Relevant article by David Clarke and Andy Roberts
  

• Relevant Westmoreland Gazette article dated 8 October 2004 entitled “Coniston Old Man to host artist and UFO”
  

Relevant Discussion Threads on ATS

• “Added: Stephen Darbishire UFO photographs (1954)”