Cedric Allingham (born June 27, 1922) is a fictional British writer reputed in the 1954 book ''Flying Saucer from Mars'' to have encountered the pilot of a

Martian Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, has appeared as a setting in works of fiction since at least the mid-1600s. It became the most popular celestial object in fiction in the late 1800s as the Moon was evidently lifeless. At the time, the pred ...

spacecraft.Allingham, C. ''Flying Saucer from Mars'', London: Frederick Muller, 1954. An American edition was published in 1955 (New York: British Book Center) as well as a 1969 German translation (''Fliegende Untertasse vom Mars'', Wiesbaden: Ventla, 1969) and even a Japanese version (空飛ぶ円盤実見記, ''Soratobu enban jikkenki'', Tōkyō : Kōbunsha, 1955) It was speculated that Allingham's account was fabricated and that Allingham himself never existed. Three decades later the elaborate

hoax A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into pu ...

was revealed to have been perpetrated by British astronomer

Patrick Moore Sir Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore (; 4 March 1923 – 9 December 2012) was an English amateur astronomer who attained prominence in that field as a writer, researcher, radio commentator and television presenter. Moore was president of the Brit ...

and his friend Peter Davies.

Autobiography

Allingham's book stated that he had been born in 1922 in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

, and educated in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. He had taken up

amateur astronomy Amateur astronomy is a hobby where participants enjoy observing or imaging celestial objects in the sky using the unaided eye, binoculars, or telescopes. Even though scientific research may not be their primary goal, some amateur astronomers m ...

while posted to the Middle East with the

RAOC The Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) was a corps of the British Army. At its renaming as a Royal Corps in 1918 it was both a supply and repair corps. In the supply area it had responsibility for weapons, armoured vehicles and other military equip ...

, and subsequently travelled around Britain indulging his hobbies of

bird-watching Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device like binoculars or a telescope, by ...

and caravan holidays while making a living as a writer of

thrillers Thriller is a genre of fiction, having numerous, often overlapping subgenres. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety. Suc ...

Claims

Allingham recounted that on 18 February 1954, while on holiday near

Lossiemouth Lossiemouth ( gd, Inbhir Losaidh) is a town in Moray, Scotland. Originally the port belonging to Elgin, it became an important fishing town. Although there has been over 1,000 years of settlement in the area, the present day town was formed over ...

, he encountered a

flying saucer A flying saucer (also referred to as "a flying disc") is a descriptive term for a type of flying craft having a disc or saucer-shaped body, commonly used generically to refer to an anomalous flying object. The term was coined in 1947 but has g ...

and communicated with its pilot by means of hand gestures and

telepathy Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic W ...

. The spaceman had indicated that he came from

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

, and that he had also visited

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

and the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

. As supporting evidence, Allingham took a number of blurry photographs of the saucer and one of its occupants, pictured from the rear. He also claimed that a fisherman named James Duncan had witnessed the event from a nearby hill, providing a signed statement that was reproduced in the book. Coming soon after the dramatic claims of the

contactee Contactees are persons who claim to have experienced contact with extraterrestrials. Some claimed ongoing encounters, while others claimed to have had as few as a single encounter. Evidence is anecdotal in all cases. As a cultural phenomenon, c ...

George Adamski George Adamski (17 April 1891 – 23 April 1965) was a Polish-American author who became widely known in ufology circles, and to some degree in popular culture, after he displayed numerous photographs in the 1940s and 1950s that he said were o ...

, Allingham's book attracted a fair amount of popular and media attention. ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' devoted a short piece to it early in 1955. Commenting that Allingham's photograph of a Martian looked "very like a

crofter A croft is a fenced or enclosed area of land, usually small and arable, and usually, but not always, with a crofter's dwelling thereon. A crofter is one who has tenure and use of the land, typically as a tenant farmer, especially in rural are ...

with

galluses Suspenders (American English, Canadian English), or braces (British English, Australian English) are fabric or leather straps worn over the shoulders to hold up skirts or trousers. The straps may be elasticated, either entirely or only at attach ...

flapping", the writer added:

Evasion

Members of the flying saucer clubs popular at the time made attempts to interview Allingham, but both he and James Duncan proved remarkably elusive. Allingham was said to have delivered a lecture to a UFO group in

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...

, at which

Lord Dowding Air Chief Marshal Hugh Caswall Tremenheere Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding, (24 April 1882 – 15 February 1970) was an officer in the Royal Air Force. He was Air Officer Commanding RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain and is generally ...

(former

Air Chief Marshal Air chief marshal (Air Chf Mshl or ACM) is a high-ranking air officer originating from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. An air chief marshal is equivalent to an Admir ...

of the

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and a prominent UFO believer) stated he was present: "We got Mr. Cedric Allingham ... to lecture to our local Flying Saucer Club, and we were all strongly impressed that he was telling the truth about his actual experiences, although we felt that he might have been mistaken in some of the conclusions which he drew from his interview".Letter from Lord Dowding to Leonard H. Stringfield, reproduced i
CRIFO Summary Report
, Cincinnati, 1957, via

NICAP The National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) is an unidentified flying object (UFO) research group most active in the United States from the 1950s to the 1980s. It remains active primarily as an informational depository on th ...

, accessed 21-08-08 The writer Robert Chapman made several attempts to trace Duncan, and to contact Allingham through his publishers, who stated firstly that Allingham was undergoing medical treatment in Switzerland, and then that he had died there. Chapman was only able to confirm that Allingham had given the previously mentioned lecture in

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

, at which the well-known broadcaster,

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...

and noted UFO

skeptic Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the pe ...

claimed to have met him.See Moore, P. ''Rockets and Earth Satellites'', London: Frederick Muller, 1959, p. 123. Note that Moore and Allingham used the same publisher. Unable to locate either Duncan or Allingham, and therefore suspecting some form of hoax, Chapman regretfully concluded that "if there was no James Duncan and

hus Hus or HUS may refer to: Medicine * Hemolytic-uremic syndrome, a disease characterized by haemolytic anemia, kidney problems and a low platelet count People * Hus (surname) * Hus family, an 18th-century French dynasty of ballet dancers and ac ...

no visitor from Mars, perhaps there was no Cedric Allingham either".Dewey, S. ''In Alien Heat'', Anomalist, , p. 54

Hoax revealed

The mystery was finally unravelled in 1986 as a result of research by Christopher Allan and Steuart Campbell which was published in the skeptical Fortean journal ''Magonia''. In "Flying Saucer from Moore's?", they argued that the prose of Allingham's book showed significant similarities to the writing of the famous

Patrick Moore.Allan, C. and Campbell, S. ''Flying Saucer from Moore's?'', ''Magonia'' v. 23 (July 1986): 15–18 Thanks to further enquiries to Allingham's publisher, they were able to trace a friend of Moore named Peter Davies who admitted that he had written the book with another individual whom he declined to name. Davies also claimed that the talk at the UFO club given by "Allingham" had in fact been given by himself while wearing a false moustache. Moore had admitted to being invited by Lord Dowding to be a guest at this meeting. These and other clues led Allan and Campbell to identify Patrick Moore as the main culprit in the hoax, which was intended to expose the gullibility and uncritical research methods of British

ufologist Ufology ( ) is the investigation of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) by people who believe that they may be of extraordinary origins (most frequently of extraterrestrial alien visitors). While there are instances of government, private, and ...

s. Specifically ''Flying Saucer from Mars'' seems to

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its subj ...

''Flying Saucers Have Landed'', the 1953 book written by the aforementioned George Adamski in collaboration with

Desmond Leslie Desmond Arthur Peter Leslie (29 June 1921, London – 21 February 2001, Antibes, France) was a British pilot, film maker, writer, and musician. He was the younger son, and youngest child, of Shane Leslie (a first cousin of Sir Winston Churchill), ...

. Further articles on Moore's involvement appeared in ''The Star'', July 28, 1986 and the 'Feedback' page of ''

New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publishe ...

'', August 14, 1986. Moore, however, immediately denied being responsible for Allingham's book, and threatened to take legal action against anyone suggesting otherwise, although he took no such action on any of the three articles mentioned above. Moore, who died in 2012, never confirmed his involvement in the affair, even though the telescope, background foliage and portion of shed shown in the book's portrait of Allingham bears a remarkable resemblance to the 12½-inch reflector telescope in Moore's own garden, as shown in a photograph in Moore's ''Observer Book of Astronomy'', 1971 edition, and in film footage. Possible sources for Allingham's biography are a "C. W. Allingham" who appears in the

Army List The ''Army List'' is a list (or more accurately seven series of lists) of serving regular, militia or territorial British Army officers, kept in one form or another, since 1702. Manuscript lists of army officers were kept from 1702 to 1752, the ...

for April 1945 in the RAC Royal Tank Regiment with the rank of temporary captain and a seniority of 19 April 1941 Quarterly Army Lists (Second Series), July 1940-December 1950 > 1945 > First quarter > Part 1 > Volume 1"">"Army lists > Quarterly Army Lists (Second Series), July 1940-December 1950 > 1945 > First quarter > Part 1 > Volume 1"
page 349.

National Library of Scotland The National Library of Scotland (NLS) ( gd, Leabharlann Nàiseanta na h-Alba, sco, Naitional Leebrar o Scotland) is the legal deposit library of Scotland and is one of the country's National Collections. As one of the largest libraries in the ...

. Retrieved 23 September 2021. and

Margery Allingham Margery Louise Allingham (20 May 1904 – 30 June 1966) was an English novelist from the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", and considered one of its four " Queens of Crime", alongside Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and Ngaio Marsh. Alli ...

who was a detective fiction writer of the 1930s to 1960s.

References

Sources

Cedric Allingham at answers.com
*Clarke, D. and Roberts, A. ''Flying Saucerers: a Social History of Ufology'', Alternative Albion, 2007, *Clarke, D. and Roberts, A. ''Out of the Shadows'', Piatkus, 2002, *Dewey, S. ''In Alien Heat'', Anomalist, {{DEFAULTSORT:Allingham, Cedric UFO hoaxes Hoaxes in the United Kingdom 1950s hoaxes Nonexistent people used in hoaxes Fictional writers Fictional British people