Anomalous Observational Phenomena: Terry Hooper [A very brief] Biography

Saturday, 26 November 2011

Terry Hooper [A very brief] Biography

Born in Bristol,England,6^th June,1957,Terry became interested in nature and wildlife. While attending Greenway Boys School,the interest in science and mysteries of nature increased resulting into several local investigations of natural phenomena. At the same time,having accidentally picked up a copy of Brinsley le poer Trench [later Lord Clancarty] “The Flying Saucer Story”,Terry began studying UFO reports and local sightings.

Between 1974-to date,Terry has acted as a wildlife consultant to UK police forces on exotic animals living in the UK,being a noted naturalist. Also in 1974,Terry set up the Bristol UFO Investigation Team [BUFOIT],joined the British UFO Research Association [BUFORA],covering much of the West of England as an investigator and Regional Investigations Co-ordinator.

Circa 1976,Terry joined the oldest UK UFO group,the British Flying Saucer Bureau [f.1952] and became an investigator,later Head of Research & Investigation and also editor of the UFO News Bulletin.

In 1977,as an attempt to promote more scientific approach to UFO investigation,Terry set up UFO International [see Sachs,M.,Encyclopaedia of UFOs].

Having established contact with Lord Clancarty and Air Vice Marshal Sir Victor Goddard [a former head of RAF Intelligence and outspoken UFO believer],in 1977 Terry,along with late colleague Franklyn A.Davin-Wilson,visited London for a meeting with Clancarty ,Goddard and others having submitted a document calling for a National Aerospace Commission [NaComm]. Hooper was asked to mount an unofficial investigation into all aspects of the UFO phenomenon –a limited fund for travelling and living expenses was agreed upon.

In January,1978,the Anomalous Observational Phenomena Bureau [AOP B] began its work building up a data base on every aspect of UFOs –historical cases,trace,physio and psychological,animal disturbance,EM cases and much more.

Original members of the AOP B were:~

Graham F.N.Knewstub [deceased]

Dave Cowdy [deceased]

Franklyn A.Davin-Wilson [deceased]

Terry Hooper

Between 1978-1984 there was much unofficial assistance given to the Bureau by professional astronomers [some publicly sceptical],former members of the Armed Forces,Air Ministry,Ministry of Defence as well as serving members of the Armed Forces and Police Forces. A network of UFO investigation & research groups was set up including GUFOI&RG [Gloucestershire],Wessex UFO I&R Group [Somerset],Wiltshire UFO I&R Team and so on.

Much of this cooperation continued well past the closing of the Bureau in 1995,though Governmental changes in policy since then have restricted any cooperation.

In 1984 a 2000 pages “British Report On Unidentified Flying Objects [UFOs]” was completed. This was later reduced to 1500pp on editing. Lord Clancarty,Sir Victor Goddard and others,including members of the House Of Lords UFO Study Group,stated that the Report was “…the closest thing the UK will ever have to a Project Blue Book”.

Although copies went to the Ministry of Defence and Sir Victor kindly passed copies on to former subordinates and ex-heads of RAF Intelligence,private UFO groups and Ufologists condemned the Report without even having seen the Summary offered. The Report is currently being up-dated with more contemporary evidence being added.

Terry edited the in-house AOP Bulletin which it is hoped will re-appear in late 2006.

Apart from this work Terry has specialized,since 1974,on Close Encounters of the Third Kind/Entity cases and provided the data for BUFORA to contribute to Ted Bloecher’s HUM-CAT. He has also written many articles on Ball Lightning,meteor-

ites,astronomy,CE-3Ks and Alien Entity cases as well as reporting on UFO incidents

[of which he has investigated approx. 2000 since 1974].

Terry re-opened the AOP Bureau on 1^st January,2006 to continue the original work,aligned to no other groups or investigators.

Current study includes cases involving non-humanoid alien-entities associated with UFOs,video footage evidence and continued study of “spooklight” phenomena.

Back in the 1970s/1980s was also a consultant for the Kentucky UFO Investigators League,a member of the Society for the Investigation of The Unexplained [SITU],of which he operated a UK branch –investigating the Dead Aquatic Creatures of Canvey Island and other incidents.

Terry also maintained links with Bigfoot/Sasquatch researchers such as The Bay Area Group [BAG],Bigfoot Investigation Team,Dmitri Bayanove,etc.. Terry maintains files on lake and sea creatures,ghosts and most other unexplained or explained phenomena he has looked into –these include ghosts and hauntings.

Important:Terry is not a “Ufologist”,”Cryptozoologist” or any other type of “ist” –or Fortean!

Terry has written two books encompassing UFOs,ghosts and the paranormal,strange phenomena,mystery animals as well as the lost history of gorillas imported into Europe ‘before their discovery’ - “Some Things Strange & Sinister” and “Some More Things Strange & Sinister” another book looking at mystery canids in the UK is due for release in February,2011.

Amongst technical papers he was a contributing researcher/author of:

Street-Perrott, F. A., Hooper T. and and Smith A.B. 2006. Exotic cats in Britain: an historical perspective. In Proceedings of the Eastern Cougar Conference 2004 (Tischendorf, J, McGinnis, H and Ropski, S J, Eds.), The Eastern Cougar Foundation and the American Ecological Research Institute, North Spring, West Virginia, 9-19.

Smith, A.B., Street-Perrott, F.A. and Hooper, T. 2006. A method for grading sightings of non-native cats: application to South and West Wales. In Proceedings of the Eastern Cougar Conference 2004 (Tischendorf, J., McGinnis, H. and Ropski, S.J., Eds.), The Eastern Cougar Foundation and the American Ecological Research Institute, North Spring, West Virginia, 102-121.