Embedded Files
Cruttwell and
In addition to his botanical studies in Papua New Guinea, it appears that Rev Cruttwell developed an interest in another area. The letters column of the Bedfordshire Times & Independent of Sept 28th 1995 has an entry from Emily Crewe, Secretary of BEAMS - the Bedford Earth and Aerial Mysteries Society (!) Under the heading "Fact is stranger than fiction", Ms Crewe invites "all secret Ufologers and Beamers" to a Society meeting "...where our guest speaker will be a former missionary from the Antipodes known as Canon Norman Cruttwell, of St Barnabas' College, Lingfield, Surrey". It is⁸ explained that "Through a Bedford friend, Mr Arthur Mitchell of Clophill, he [Canon Cruttwell] contacted us a year ago following the notices of the local press of the Unidentified Flying Objects that were frequently reported. The Canon will be telling us of interesting encounters with the UFO he and his Mission had in Papua New Guinea in 1959."
It is documented that in early 1960, Canon Cruttwell made public a paper he had compiled from notes given to him by 31-year-old Australian Anglican missionary William Gill, who was also running a parish in northern Papua New Guinea during Cruttwell's tenure there. Gill's notes detail what he and about 40 others witnessed in the skies above their village in April 1959 - unidentified flying objects - seeing what they described as "...a large, disc-shaped, solidly constructed object, with a wide base tapering up to a higher deck, and with what appeared to be four legs beneath, and four brightly lit panels in the side. It occasionally emitted a shaft of blue light at a 45-degree angle." On top of this, they claim they witnessed figures emerging from the upper deck of the craft and moving about while the vessel hovered above. Canon Cruttwell did not observe such activities himself at his location but was enthralled by the accounts given. It has been suggested that Gill was pulling Cruttwell’s leg, but if so, when Cruttwell became excited and helped inform the world about the events, Gill might then have been expected to stay quiet and wait for the embarrassment to pass. Instead, Gill accepted invitations to speak widely about what he had seen, with no apparent reluctance. Canon Cruttwell was not the only recipient of Gill's documented sightings. Delving into the depths of the Internet will uncover numerous references to UFO activity in Papua New Guinea, together with the names of Gill and Cruttwell.
No record of the 1995 BEAMS meeting in Bedford at which Canon Cruttwell was due to speak has been discovered. The meeting was scheduled for the beginning of October 1995, but this was also the month when Canon Norman Edward Garry Cruttwell passed away. So he may not have had the opportunity to regale an audience with his recollections of events more than three decades earlier in the skies above Papua New Guinea.
Two pages from Rev Cruttwell's report documenting UFO sightings in Papua New Guinea
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse