Alan Mcilwraith (born 3 March 1978) is a British formercall centre worker fromGlasgow who was exposed as amilitary impostor by a tabloid newspaper after he passed himself off as a much-decoratedBritish Army officer.
He convinced a number of charities and media outlets that he was "Captain Sir Alan Mcilwraith,KBE,DSO,MC". TheNational Children's Home charity invited him to the Women of Influence Awards at the Barony Halls. Celebrity magazineNo1 carried a picture of him which was captioned "Lady Shona [McLaughlan] and Sir Alan McIlwraith", showing him wearing the dress uniform of theParachute Regiment with medals.
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An article about Alan Mcilwraith was created on Wikipedia by a user under the username “MilitaryPro” on 5 October 2005:
CaptainSir Alan Mcilwraith,CBE,DSO,MC (born 3 March 1978) is a Britisharmy 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 theUnited Kingdom andNATO can look to in times of trouble.
Mcilwraith's father was an Engineer. Mcilwraith went to Shawlands Academy, in 1994 he went toGlasgow University. Mcilwraith was commissioned into theParachute Regiment aged 18 finishing top in his class atSandhurst Military Academy, specialising in the threat fromTerrorism. Serveing [sic] inNorthern Ireland, he spent two years commanding a parachute company in Northern Ireland, and later the Balkans.
In 2000s, Mcilwraith served in theNATOchain of command as an Advisor to theSupreme 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] theDSO. 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] ofterrorism in the heart ofLondon but these rumours are denied by both the British Goverment [sic] and Capt Mcilwraith alike however he was awared [sic] theCBE for services to theUnited Kingdom
Very few Photos of Capt Mcilwraith are in circulation he is very camera shy but a splendid soldier says GeneralMike JacksonChief of the General Staff.
When the article was created, Mcilwraith was described as aCBE, but by December 2005 he had purportedly been elevated to the rank ofKBE. On 4 October 2005, MilitaryPro added the name of Alan Mcilwraith to theList of honorary British Knights on Wikipedia.
Mcilwraith's double life was exposed by the Scottish tabloid newspaper theDaily Record in an article on 11 April 2006 which described him as "SirWalter Mitty". The newspaper contacted the British Army andBuckingham 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."[1] 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."[2]
In December 2007, theSunday Mail reported that Mcilwraith had reinvented himself as amagician. When confronted by theSunday 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."[3]
In June 2009, Mcilwraith received fresh coverage in theDaily Record, which reported that he had been passing himself off as a millionaire property tycoon and charity worker to students atStrathclyde University. The paper also claimed that Mcilwraith had asked some students for disclosure documents and taken theirNational Insurance numbers and other details after duping them into filling in recruitment forms.[4]
When a journalist from theRecord met Mcilwraith atGlasgow Central Station, he was wearing "striking blue"contact lenses. Mcilwraith claimed he was working for an agency that housedasylum 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."[4]