Alan Mcilwraith

Mcilwraith with the Parachute Regiment uniform and assorted medals he purchased online. The image was uploaded by Mcilwraith for use in the original version of his Wikipedia article.

Alan Mcilwraith (born 3 March 1978) is a Scottish former call centre worker from Glasgow who was exposed as a military impostor by a tabloid newspaper after he passed 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 Women 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.

Wikipedia entry

An article about Alan Mcilwraith was created on Wikipedia by a user under the username “MilitaryPro” on 5 October 2005:

Captain Sir Alan Mcilwraith, CBE, DSO, MC (born 3 March 1978) is a British army officer, currently serving with the Scottish TA. Special Force's Force's [sic] Trained Capt Mcilwraith is know throught [sic] the military world as a man that can get things done and thought of as a hero that the United Kingdom and NATO can look to in times of trouble.

Mcilwraith's father was an Engineer. Mcilwraith went to Shawlands Academy, in 1994 he went to Glasgow University. Mcilwraith was commissioned into the Parachute Regiment aged 18 finishing top in his class at Sandhurst Military Academy, specialising in the threat from Terrorism. Serveing [sic] in Northern Ireland, he spent two years commanding a parachute company in Northern Ireland, and later the Balkans.

In 2000s, Mcilwraith served in the NATO chain of command as an Advisor to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Wesley Clark. He is best known for risking his own life when his company was attaked [sic] by a battalion to protect his men he took charge of a general purpose machine gun and held off the enemy long enough for his men to retreat. For this action he was awared [sic] the DSO. He was also badly injured protecting a young woman from an angry mob without any weapons to hand he placed himself between the young woman and mob this act of heroism made him a hit within the political world. There have been rumours that Mcilwraith stop a act [sic] of terrorism in the heart of London but these rumours are denied by both the British Goverment [sic] and Capt Mcilwraith alike however he was awared [sic] the CBE for services to the United Kingdom

Very few Photos of Capt Mcilwraith are in circulation he is very camera shy but a splendid soldier says General Mike Jackson Chief of the General Staff.

When the article was created, Mcilwraith was described as a CBE, but by December 2005 he had purportedly been elevated to the rank of KBE. On 4 October 2005, MilitaryPro added the name of Alan Mcilwraith to the List of honorary British Knights on Wikipedia.

Exposure

Mcilwraith's double life was exposed by the Scottish tabloid newspaper the Daily Record 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 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." Mcilwraith later said that "the lie had just gone too deep, it's like a weed that invades your life. Once it's taken root, there's nothing you can do about it."

In December 2007, the Sunday Mail reported that Mcilwraith had reinvented himself as a magician. 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."

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 Insurance 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."

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 Wikipedia – This article looks at some of the issues raised by open content editing.

External links

• "Captain Sir Alan KBE – call-centre worker", The Guardian, 12 April 2006
• "CAPTAIN BOGUS", The Mirror, 13 April 2006
• The Guardian – My great escape from Glasgow estate: fake army hero tells story, 25 July 2006
• Cara Page, "You shall not go to the ball, 'Sir Alan'", The Daily Record, 15 April 2006.