Geoffrey Crawley, former editor of the British Journal of Photography and exposer of the Cottingley Fairies hoax who died on 29 October, was remembered in a Telegraph obituary at the weekend.
When he concluded his investigations into the Cottingley photographs, Crawley wrote to Elsie Wright with his findings… “Of course there are fairies – just as there is Father Christmas,” he wrote. “The trouble comes when you try to make them corporeal. They are fine poetic concepts, taking us out of this at times too ugly real world. Conan Doyle, after the horrors of the First World War in which his son died, wanted to suggest a realm where spirit forms just might exist.”