On 15 February 1954, thirteen-year-old Stephen Darbishire allegedly takes a UFO photo near
This incident is Case 91 in Isaac Koi's "Top 100" article, since it was referred to in 31 of the books covered by that article.
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).
This incident has also featured in a list of cases produced jointly by British ufologists Dave Clarke and Andy Roberts for the Fortean Times in 2007 as part of a survey of various researchers of the ten cases from 1947 onwards that interested them the most.
Web Resources
This incident is discussed on the AboveTopSecret.com (“ATS”) internet discussion forums in Thread 304723.
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Book References
For discussion of Darbishire’s photo see the following:
Year |
Discussion by:
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No. of Pages |
Adamski, George in his “Flying Saucers Farewell” (1961) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 148 (in Book 2, Chapter 3) of the Abelard-Schuman hardback edition, at page 125 of the Paperback Library edition (published under the title “Behind the Flying Saucer Mystery”). |
1 |
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Bennett, Colin in his “Looking for Orthon” (2001) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 161, 172 (in Chapter 14), 199 (in Chapter 17), 219 (in the Notes) of the Paraview softcover edition. |
4 |
|
Blodget, Charlotte in George Adamski’s “Inside the Flying Saucers” (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) (Originally entitled “Inside the Space Ships”) (1955) at page 9 (in the Introduction) of the Paperback Library paperback edition. |
1 |
|
Bowen, Charles in “The Humanoids” (1969) (edited by Charles Bowen) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 14 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Few and Far Between : Landing and occupant reports a rarity in the British Isles”) of the Neville Spearman hardback edition, with the same page numbering in the Futura paperback edition. |
1 |
|
Chapman, Robert in his “UFO : Flying Saucers Over Britain?” (1969) (also published as “Unidentified Flying Objects”) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 54 (in Chapter 4) of the Mayflower paperback edition. |
1 |
|
Clark, Jerome and Coleman, Loren in their “The Unidentified” (1975) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 199-200 (in the unnumbered section entitled “UFOs: The Mystery in the Machine”, part 5) of the Warner paperback edition. |
2 |
|
Clarke, David and Roberts, Andy in their “Flying Saucerers : A social history of UFOlogy” (2007) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 45-49 (in Chapter 3) of the Alternative Albion softcover edition. |
5 |
|
Clarke, David in his “The UFO Files : The Inside Story of Real-Life Sightings” (2009) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 56-57 (in Chapter 3) of the National Archives softcover edition. |
2 |
|
Cramp, Leonard G in his “Piece for a Jig-Saw” (1966) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 13 (in the Foreword), 122-123 (in Chapter 8), 372-373 (in Chapte 22) of the Somerton hardback edition. |
5 |
|
Cramp, Leonard G in his “Space, Gravity and the Flying Saucer” (1954) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 171-178 (in Chapter 15) of the Werner Laurie hardback edition. |
8 |
|
Cramp, Leonard G in his “The Cosmic Matrix : Piece for a Jig-Saw Part |
1 |
|
Evans, Hilary in his “The Evidence for UFOs” (1983) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 93, 94 (in Chapter 5, Case 47) of the Aquarian softcover edition. |
2 |
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Gibbons, Gavin in his “The Coming of the Space Ships” (1956) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 1-2 (in Chapter 1), 33 (in Chapter 4) of the Neville Spearman hardback edition. |
3 |
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Girvan, Waveney in his “Flying Saucers and Common Sense” (1955) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 99-100 (in Chapter 8) of the Frederick Muller hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Citadel hardback edition). |
2 |
|
Good, Timothy in his “Above Top Secret” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) 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 |
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Good, Timothy in his “Beyond Top Secret” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 13 (in Chapter 1), 444-445 (in Chapter 17) of the Sidgwick & Jackson hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Pan paperback edition). |
3 |
|
Knight, David C in his “UFOs: A pictorial history from antiquity to the present” (1979) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 66 (in Part 3) of the McGraw Hill hardback edition. |
1 |
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Leslie, Desmond in George Adamski’s “Inside the Flying Saucers” (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) (Originally entitled “Inside the Space Ships”) (1955) at pages 17-18 (in the Foreword) of the Paperback Library paperback edition. |
2 |
|
Leslie, Desmond in Leonard G Cramp’s “Space, Gravity and the Flying Saucer” (1954) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 13-17 (in the Introduction) of the Werner Laurie hardback edition. |
5 |
|
Leslie, Desmond in the 1970 revised version of “Flying Saucers Have Landed” (1953) by Desmond Leslie and George Adamski (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) 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 |
|
Marrs, Jim in his “Alien Agenda” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 194 (in Chapter 7) of the Harper Collins paperback edition. |
1 |
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NICAP in its “The UFO Evidence” (1964) (edited by Richard Hall) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 89 (in Section 8) of the privately published paperbound edition, with the same page numbering in the 1997 Barnes & Noble paperbound reprint. Available free online at: “http://www.nicap.org/ufoe/section_8.htm |
1 |
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Randles, Jenny in “The Encyclopedia of UFOs” (1980) (edited by Ronald Story) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 85-86 (in an entry entitled “Coniston photos”) of the NEL hardback edition. |
2 |
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Randles, Jenny in her “UFOs and How to See Them” (1992) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 21-22 (in Chapter 1) of the Brockhampton Press hardback edition. |
2 |
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Robins, Joyce in her “The World’s Greatest Mysteries” (1989) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 128, 129 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Mysteries of the Universe”) of the Treasure Press hardback edition. |
2 |
|
Spencer, John in his “The UFO Encyclopedia” (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) 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 |
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Spencer, John in his “UFOs: The Definitive Casebook” (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 82 (in the unnumbered section entitled “ |
1 |
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Tansley, David in his “Omens of Awareness” (1977) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 223 (in Chapter 11) of the Abacus paperback edition. |
1 |
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Trench, Brinsley Le Poer in his “The Eternal Subject” (1973) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 84 (in Chapter 13) of the Souvenir Press hardback edition, at page 87 of the Day Book paperback editon (published under the title “Mysterious Visitors: The UFO Story”). |
1 |
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Trench, Brinsley Le Poer in his “The Flying Saucer Story” (1966) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 46-47 (in Chapter 5) of the revised Tandem paperback edition. |
2 |
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Watts, Alan in his “UFO Quest” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 7 (in the Introduction), 43-45 (in Chapter 4) of the Blandford softcover edition. |
4 |
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Wilkins, Harold in his “Flying Saucers Uncensored” (1955) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 210 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Is There a Cosmic General Staff?”) of Pyramid paperback edition. |
1 |
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Wilson, Damon in his “Strange But True: Aliens” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 104 (in Chapter 6) of the Select softcover edition. |
1 |
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