The Solway Firth Spaceman (also known as the Solway Spaceman and the Cumberland Spaceman) refers to a figure seen in a photograph taken in 1964 by firefighter, photographer and local historian Jim Templeton (13 February 1920 - 27 November 2011). The famous photo was taken on Burgh Marsh, situated near Burgh by Sands, overlooking the Solway Firth in Cumbria, England. Templeton claims the photograph shows a background figure wearing a space suit and has insisted that he did not see anyone present when the photograph was taken. The image was reproduced widely in contemporary newspapers and gained the interest of ufologists.
On 23 May 1964, Jim Templeton, a firefighter from Carlisle, Cumberland (now part of Cumbria), took three photographs of his five-year-old daughter while on a day trip to Burgh Marsh.Templeton said the only other people on the marshes that day were a couple of old ladies sitting in a car at the far end of the marsh. In a letter to the Daily Mail in 2002, Templeton stated, "I took three pictures of my daughter Elizabeth in a similar pose – and was shocked when the middle picture came back from Kodak displaying what looks like a spaceman in the background." Templeton insists that he did not see the figure until after his photographs were developed, and analysts at Kodak confirmed that the photograph was genuine.
It has since been suggested that the spaceman is actually Templeton's wife, Annie, who was present at the time and seen on other photographs taken that day. Since the Zeiss Contax Pentacon F SLR camera he used only displayed 70% of the actual photograph in the viewfinder, it would be possible for him to take the image without noticing his wife in the periphery of the shot. Annie was wearing a pale blue dress on the day in question, which was overexposed as white in the other photos taken that day. She also had dark, bobbed hair. Using photo software to darken the image and straighten the horizon, the spaceman increasingly appears to be the figure of a normal person viewed from behind.
It has since been suggested that the spaceman is actually Templeton's wife, Annie, who was present at the time and seen on other photographs taken that day. Since the Zeiss Contax Pentacon F SLR camera he used only displayed 70% of the actual photograph in the viewfinder, it would be possible for him to take the image without noticing his wife in the periphery of the shot. Annie was wearing a pale blue dress on the day in question, which was overexposed as white in the other photos taken that day. She also had dark, bobbed hair. Using photo software to darken the image and straighten the horizon, the spaceman increasingly appears to be the figure of a normal person viewed from behind.
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