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Solway Firth Spaceman Mystery SOLVED
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The mystery of the Solway Spaceman
On a bright summer's day in 1964, a Carlisle fireman took a photo of his daughter that created headlines around the world. Fifty years later are we any closer to solving the mystery of the "Solway Spaceman"?
"We went on a normal outing and picked our spot," Jim Templeton recalled in a BBC interview before his death in 2011. "We sat down and I said, 'Now I'll get some photos of you with the new dress on', never expecting this to happen."
For UFOlogists, it was clear. A white suit. A helmet. A dark visor. Mr Templeton, they believed, had photographed a spaceman. It was, he said, only when the chemist who processed his pictures pointed out the shot had been spoiled by a figure that he realised there had been somebody - or something else - present. Mr Templeton took it to police in Carlisle, who declared there was nothing out of the ordinary.
"It came to the attention of the local paper, the Cumberland News. From there it ran and ran. It was picked up by the Daily Mail and Express," said Dr David Clarke, an author on UFOs.
Jim Templeton Jim Templeton stood by his version of events when he was interviewed by BBC Look North in 2008
Then came a visit from two "Men in Black" who asked to be taken to the spot where the image was taken and referred to each other only as Number 9 and Number 11. Perhaps the strangest turn of events was a link to the planned launch of a Blue Streak missile in Woomera, South Australia.
Could it simply be a hoax? Dr Clarke, who met Mr Templeton in 2002, thinks it unlikely.
"I came away absolutely convinced he was telling the truth and couldn't explain it himself, although I was less convinced about his 'Men in Black' story. Whoever it was who visited him, I don't think they were from the government."
However, the spaceman, Dr Clarke says, is almost certainly not anything of the sort. "One of the other stills [taken that day] shows Jim's wife who, according to him, was standing behind him when he took the photo of Elizabeth," he said.
"I think for some reason his wife walked into the shot and he didn't see her because with that particular make of camera you could only see 70% of what was in the shot through the viewfinder." Elizabeth Templeton and mother Annie This image was one of a handful taken by Mr Templeton on the day and is believed to show his wife, Annie, right, alongside Elizabeth
Annie, he argues, was standing with her back to the camera and the photograph was over-exposed - causing her blue dress to look white.
Whatever the truth, for Dr Clarke it is a reminder of a more "innocent time" and he is in no doubt about its importance. "People now are much more cynical about these kind of pictures," he said.
"Back in the 50s and 60s you got a few grainy stills showing extraordinary things. People were much more surprised and willing to suspend disbelief. "For me, it's one of the most impressive anomalous images in supernatural investigations and people will still be talking about it in another 50 years."
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Well, it only took them 50 years to solve this 
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