The Solway Firth “spaceman” photograph
On May 23, 1964, Jim Templeton photographed his five-year-old daughter Elizabeth sitting on Burgh Marsh, overlooking the Solway Firth. He said that no one else was in sight, but when the film came back the middle of three frames showed a tall white figure apparently in a space suit standing behind her. Kodak said the picture had not been tampered with, the Carlisle police found nothing suspicious, and the photograph went round the world. Templeton later told of two men claiming to be from the government who quizzed him at the marsh, and repeated a story that a Blue Streak launch at Woomera had been stopped by two similar figures. In 2014 David Clarke proposed the explanation now generally given: Templeton’s wife had walked into the background, her back to the camera, outside the part of the scene the viewfinder showed, and the overexposed blue dress turned white.
Explanation
In 2014 the researcher David Clarke concluded that the “spaceman” is most likely Templeton’s wife, Annie, who was there that day: seen from behind, her pale blue dress overexposed to white, standing beyond what the camera’s viewfinder showed. Darkened and straightened, the figure looks like a person seen from the back.
What was seen
Shape: A tall white figure in what looks like a space suit and helmet, behind the child
Witnesses: Jim Templeton, a Carlisle fireman and photographer, his wife and their five-year-old daughter
Duration: One photograph in a sequence of three