Alan Mcilwraith
Encyclopedia
Alan Mcilwraith is a former call centre
worker from Glasgow
, Scotland
who was exposed by a tabloid newspaper after passing himself off as a much-decorated British Army
officer.
He convinced a number of charities and media outlets that he was "Captain Sir Alan Mcilwraith, KBE
, DSO
, MC
". The National Children's Home charity invited him to the Woman of Influence Awards at the Barony Halls. Celebrity magazine No1 carried a picture of him which was captioned "Lady Shona [McLaughlan] and Sir Alan McIlwraith", showing him wearing the dress uniform of the Parachute Regiment with medals.
Mcilwraith also uploaded to Wikipedia a photograph of himself wearing military uniform and medals. The article was created from an IP address
registered to AOL
, but Mcilwraith also apparently edited the article under the Wikipedia username MilitaryPro. On 10 October 2005 the article was tagged as needing citations for verification, and on 20 October 2005 the article was tagged for deletion due to concerns about its reliability. The article was deleted three times and protected from recreation on 17 February 2006. When news of the hoax broke in April 2006 the article was revived, stating that the previous versions had been written by Mcilwraith himself.
When the article was created, Mcilwraith was described as a CBE
, but by December 2005 he had been elevated to the rank of KBE. On 4 October 2005, MilitaryPro had added the name of Alan Mcilwraith to the List of honorary British Knights in Wikipedia. The edit was reverted two hours later, with a user commenting that "Google
has never heard of him — pretty good for someone supposedly knighted this year."
in an article on 11 April 2006 which described him as "Sir Walter Mitty
". The newspaper contacted the British Army and Buckingham Palace
during its investigation into Mcilwraith's status, but both denied any knowledge of him. An Army spokesperson was quoted by the newspaper as saying, "I can confirm he is a fraud. He has never been an officer, soldier or Army cadet. May I suggest you try the space cadet organisation." Glasgow University also denied that Mcilwraith had ever been a student there.
Following widespread coverage of the story in the UK media, Alan Mcilwraith failed to return to his desk at the call centre of Dell Computers where he worked, and lost his job. His fiancée Shona also returned her engagement ring. Interviewed by the Daily Record in July 2006, he claimed that he was "driven to lie after being hit on the head with a scaffolding pole by a gang of youths in the street" but spoke of his regret at having perpetrated the hoax: "I made people look stupid, probably myself more than anybody else and I upset my family and friends."
reported that Mcilwraith had reinvented himself as a magician
called Ledger, and claimed to be a drinking companion of Lance Burton
. A spokesman for Burton (who is teetotal
) dismissed the report. Mcilwraith also claimed to have come second in the World Magician of the Year contest.
Mcilwraith also boasted that he used magic to bed numerous women. He said: "I must admit, magic does help attract the ladies. Women really love my magic - but when guys see them crowding round, they want to get in on the act too and muscle them out of the way. Women like any tricks to do with money. I have one where I put a pen through a note but leave it intact and they go mad for it. But I have a strict rule for women - if one asks you back to hers after midnight, always say no - you'll be too drunk and she'll turn out to be a minger."
When confronted by the Sunday Mail, he said: "I've been very stupid. It was all lies and for that I apologise. I should have stopped lying after I got caught last time but I just really wanted to be taken seriously as a magician. I won't ever do this again."
numbers and other details after duping them into filling in recruitment forms.
When a journalist from the Record met Mcilwraith at Glasgow Central Station
, he was wearing "striking blue" contact lenses. Mcilwraith claimed he was working for an agency that housed asylum seekers, denied passing himself off as a student and said that the stories of his latest tall tales had come from students getting confused after too many drinks. He stated: "I have been trying to recruit people for the company I work for but I have not been trying to do anything other than help. It's true I asked one girl about getting a disclosure but I was genuinely trying to help her along too."
post April 2006
Call centre
A call centre or call center is a centralised office used for the purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone. A call centre is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information inquiries from consumers. Outgoing calls for telemarketing,...
worker from Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
who was exposed by a tabloid newspaper after passing himself off as a much-decorated British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
officer.
He convinced a number of charities and media outlets that he was "Captain Sir Alan Mcilwraith, KBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, DSO
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
, MC
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
". The National Children's Home charity invited him to the Woman of Influence Awards at the Barony Halls. Celebrity magazine No1 carried a picture of him which was captioned "Lady Shona [McLaughlan] and Sir Alan McIlwraith", showing him wearing the dress uniform of the Parachute Regiment with medals.
Mcilwraith's entry in Wikipedia
Mcilwraith created a Wikipedia article about himself at 18:28 GMT on 5 October 2005, which read as follows (spelling mistakes included):Mcilwraith also uploaded to Wikipedia a photograph of himself wearing military uniform and medals. The article was created from an IP address
IP address
An Internet Protocol address is a numerical label assigned to each device participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing...
registered to AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
, but Mcilwraith also apparently edited the article under the Wikipedia username MilitaryPro. On 10 October 2005 the article was tagged as needing citations for verification, and on 20 October 2005 the article was tagged for deletion due to concerns about its reliability. The article was deleted three times and protected from recreation on 17 February 2006. When news of the hoax broke in April 2006 the article was revived, stating that the previous versions had been written by Mcilwraith himself.
When the article was created, Mcilwraith was described as a CBE
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
, but by December 2005 he had been elevated to the rank of KBE. On 4 October 2005, MilitaryPro had added the name of Alan Mcilwraith to the List of honorary British Knights in Wikipedia. The edit was reverted two hours later, with a user commenting that "Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
has never heard of him — pretty good for someone supposedly knighted this year."
Exposure
Mcilwraith's double life was exposed by the Scottish tabloid newspaper the Daily RecordDaily Record (Scotland)
The Daily Record is a Scottish tabloid newspaper based in Glasgow. It had been the best-selling daily paper in Scotland for many years with a paid circulation in August 2011 of 307,794 . It is now outsold by its arch-rival the Scottish Sun which in September 2010 had a circulation of 339,586 in...
in an article on 11 April 2006 which described him as "Sir Walter Mitty
Walter Mitty
Walter Mitty is a fictional character in James Thurber's short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", first published in the New Yorker on March 18, 1939, and in book form in My World and Welcome to It in 1942...
". The newspaper contacted the British Army and Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
during its investigation into Mcilwraith's status, but both denied any knowledge of him. An Army spokesperson was quoted by the newspaper as saying, "I can confirm he is a fraud. He has never been an officer, soldier or Army cadet. May I suggest you try the space cadet organisation." Glasgow University also denied that Mcilwraith had ever been a student there.
Following widespread coverage of the story in the UK media, Alan Mcilwraith failed to return to his desk at the call centre of Dell Computers where he worked, and lost his job. His fiancée Shona also returned her engagement ring. Interviewed by the Daily Record in July 2006, he claimed that he was "driven to lie after being hit on the head with a scaffolding pole by a gang of youths in the street" but spoke of his regret at having perpetrated the hoax: "I made people look stupid, probably myself more than anybody else and I upset my family and friends."
Mcilwraith the magician
In December 2007, the Sunday MailSunday Mail (Scotland)
The Sunday Mail is a Scottish tabloid newspaper published every Sunday. It is the sister paper of the Daily Record and is owned by Trinity Mirror and as such has a left-wing outlook which in turn tends to guide Scottish political debate in that direction.The Sunday Mail is read by over one million...
reported that Mcilwraith had reinvented himself as a magician
Magic (illusion)
Magic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks or creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means...
called Ledger, and claimed to be a drinking companion of Lance Burton
Lance Burton
Lance Burton is a stage illusionist. He has appeared on numerous television programs, and also performed for Queen Elizabeth and President Ronald Reagan...
. A spokesman for Burton (who is teetotal
Teetotalism
Teetotalism refers to either the practice of or the promotion of complete abstinence from alcoholic beverages. A person who practices teetotalism is called a teetotaler or is simply said to be teetotal...
) dismissed the report. Mcilwraith also claimed to have come second in the World Magician of the Year contest.
Mcilwraith also boasted that he used magic to bed numerous women. He said: "I must admit, magic does help attract the ladies. Women really love my magic - but when guys see them crowding round, they want to get in on the act too and muscle them out of the way. Women like any tricks to do with money. I have one where I put a pen through a note but leave it intact and they go mad for it. But I have a strict rule for women - if one asks you back to hers after midnight, always say no - you'll be too drunk and she'll turn out to be a minger."
When confronted by the Sunday Mail, he said: "I've been very stupid. It was all lies and for that I apologise. I should have stopped lying after I got caught last time but I just really wanted to be taken seriously as a magician. I won't ever do this again."
Mcilwraith the property tycoon
In June 2009, Mcilwraith received fresh coverage in the Daily Record, which reported that he had been passing himself off as a millionaire property tycoon and charity worker to students at Strathclyde University. The paper also claimed that Mcilwraith had asked some students for disclosure documents and taken their National InsuranceNational Insurance
National Insurance in the United Kingdom was initially a contributory system of insurance against illness and unemployment, and later also provided retirement pensions and other benefits...
numbers and other details after duping them into filling in recruitment forms.
When a journalist from the Record met Mcilwraith at Glasgow Central Station
Glasgow Central station
Glasgow Central is the larger of the two present main-line railway terminals in Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland. The station was opened by the Caledonian Railway on 31 July 1879 and is currently managed by Network Rail...
, he was wearing "striking blue" contact lenses. Mcilwraith claimed he was working for an agency that housed asylum seekers, denied passing himself off as a student and said that the stories of his latest tall tales had come from students getting confused after too many drinks. He stated: "I have been trying to recruit people for the company I work for but I have not been trying to do anything other than help. It's true I asked one girl about getting a disclosure but I was genuinely trying to help her along too."
See also
- Wikipedia Signpost article describing how the hoax was discovered and removed
- Alan McIlwraith's Wikipedia article as of 10 October 2005
- Reliability of WikipediaReliability of WikipediaThe reliability of Wikipedia , compared to other encyclopedias and more specialized sources, is assessed in many ways, including statistically, through comparative review, analysis of the historical patterns, and strengths and weaknesses inherent in the editing process unique to Wikipedia.Several...
- This article looks at some of the issues raised by open contentOpen contentOpen content or OpenContent is a neologism coined by David Wiley in 1998 which describes a creative work that others can copy or modify. The term evokes open source, which is a related concept in software....
editing.
Press coverage
April 2006- The Daily Record - Meet the real Sir Walter Mitty, 11 April 2006
- The Daily Record - Mcilwraith's entry in Wikipedia, 11 April 2006
- The Daily Record - Lies lies lies, 12 April 2006
- The Times - 'Knight decorated for bravery' exposed as footsoldier in call centre's front line, 12 April 2006
- The Guardian - Captain Sir Alan KBE - call-centre worker, 12 April 2006
- The Daily Record - I've got to leave cruise to catch London bombers, 13 April 2006
- The Daily Record - Shady deals at the back of B&Q, 13 April 2006
- The Mirror - CAPTAIN BOGUS, 13 April 2006
post April 2006
- The Guardian - My great escape from Glasgow estate: fake army hero tells story, 25 July 2006
- The Daily Record - You shall not go to the ball, 'Sir Alan'