Dr David Clarke presents UFO files at The National Archives – Thursday 08 March 2018

Journalism Reader Dr David Clarke will present a public lecture on his five years as consultant/curator of the Ministry of Defence UFO files at The National Archives.

‘UFO files in Britain’s National Archives’ at 6.00pm on Thursday 8 March will include a summary of Dr Clarke’s research on the British government’s investigations into ‘unidentified flying objects’ from WW2 to the present day.

The ticketed event will take place in the archive’s new state-of-the-art lecture theatre at Kew, near Richmond in Surrey. Tickets are available to buy from Eventbrite .

The lecture will be accompanied by an exhibition of some of the most important original documents that form part of the archives at Kew. These include memos from Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who asked the Air Ministry for an inquiry into ‘flying saucers’ in 1952 to the decision by the MoD in 2009 to close down their ‘UFO desk’ and telephone hotline for sighting reports. It will also include Cabinet Office minutes, and some formerly Top Secret intelligence files on UFOs.

Dr Clarke will also be signing copies of his books ‘The UFO Files’ (2012) and ‘UFO Drawings from The National Archives’ (2016).

The National Archives is the official archive and publisher for the UK government and for England and Wales. It is the guardian of some of our most iconic national documents, dating back over 1,000 years.

Between 2008 and 2013 Dr Clarke acted as the media consultant and spokesperson for the transfer of 210 formerly classified files on UFOs from The Ministry of Defence archive in central London to Kew.

The project was funded by the MoD and resulted in the release more than 60,000 pages of reports, correspondence and policy material on UFO-related issues to the public under the Open Government/Freedom of Information Act in ten tranches.

Each file was scanned and is available as a PDF download from the National Archives UFO page here .

The project website received more than 3.7 million visitors from 160 countries and mass media coverage brought news of the release of the files to an estimated global audience of 25 million people.

Dr Clarke wrote three books based upon the archive material he curated during his consultancy. These include The UFO Files (Bloomsbury/TNA 2012), Britain’s X-traordinary Files (Bloomsbury/TNA 2014) and UFO Drawings from The National Archives (Four Corners/TNA 2017).

The research consultancy raised the profile of Sheffield Hallam University and the C3RI as a centre of expertise for the study of Contemporary Legends. The resultant Impact Case Study will be entered into REF 2020.

Date: Thu 8 March 2018

Time: 18:00 – 19:00 GMT

Location: The National Archives, Bessant Dr, Kew, TW9 4DU