I found this tatty old article featuring Norman Oliver but there is no date or publication title -it was tucked inside one of the bulky Franklyn Davin-Wilson files. My best guess is that this in mid 1970s. In case you wonder "FRAS" -Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
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The BUFORA response to his death was insulting. Yes, he was approachable and good ambassador for Ufology but it skipped his entire history in the subject and never even mentioned he had edited later issues of the BUFORA Journal:
"April 2022 - VERY SAD NEWS:
The BUFORA team sadly inform you of the very sad news that our dear friend and colleague Norman Oliver has passed away.
Norman was known by many of the past and present BUFORA team, for many years he was a very valued member and a great ambassador not only for BUFORA but for the whole UFO community, his kind contribution to us all was immense.
His knowledge of our subject was vast, we remember him giving presentations to the public, he was a very approachable, polite, caring and a genuinely decent kindhearted man who was always happy to share his time with everyone who was privileged to have met him.
He was a true gentleman, we wish there were a lot more people like Norman Oliver in this world, if there were, it certainly would be a much better place.
Rest in peace our dear friend Norman, you will be sadly missed."
Norman had been a BUFORA Committee member before taking on the BUFORA Journal when it was relaunched.
The thing I remember most about Norman was the fact that he did respond to correspondence and was willing to discuss "Occupant" reports as people were calling them back in the 1970s. We discussed the Betty and Barney Hill case and some of the nasty remarks made by British Ufologists but most of all he was willing to discuss these cases and encourage me to look at certain sources. After years of negativity from Ufologists it was like a breath of fresh air.
When I could not find certain books, of course, Norman suggested Lionel Beer and Beer Books. Lionel is another veteran Ufologist and a pleasant and well informed to boot.
Every-so-often a "CosMos" item would pop up in a UFO publication and thi would be an item from Norman's own publication COS-MOS -as it says on the covers "aims to COntact Space-Men Or Saucers". Whenever I heard of a British report at some point Norman's name would crop up.
Unbelievable as it may sound now, the claims of a flying saucer contactee named Arthur Bryant caused a major split in British Ufology. Sadly, my copies of both books were stolen years ago but I initially read them when borrowed from Downend Library back in the 1970s. Bryant's claims were typical contactee stuff and the entity he met -"Yamski"- had the kooky crew jumping up and down. As it asks on the cover "Did Adamski Return?" Spoiler: no, he did not.
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I was in contact with Eileen Buckle at one point and she was absolutely genuine in her belief of the Bryant claims. Misogyny was rife in Ufology and, of course "dafty woman" and other insults (mainly behind her back) were spoken.
Norman then self-published Sequel to Scoriton about a year after The Scoriton Mystery had struck Ufology and covers events up to the time of Buckle's book being released. Norman claimed that the parts that Bryant claimed had come from the Mantell crash (Thomas Mantell chasing a UFO blacked out due to no oxygen and high altitude and his aircraft plummeted back to earth) "could well have come from a wooden box full of gadgets purchased by the Bryants from a Naval Surplus Store in Doncaster in 1964." He reported that Bryant had worked as a gardener for a local doctor a few years previously and that the doctor's wife had said he was "a notoriously bad witness and can 'tell a tale' (i.e. fabricate)".
Norman concluded: "We can say that Bryant was a fraud pure and simple, and that he made up the whole story after reading some UFO literature and possibly after a genuine UFO sighting."
Norman, polite and always playing fair made sure that everyone understood that Buckle disagreed with him and she defended Bryant in an issue Lionel Beer's Spacelink magazine. I found that those prone to still believing the great (and successful) fraud George Adamski stayed on the side of Buckle while the more 'scientific' were in Norman's corner. I saw and heard both sides but what stopped a major rift in Ufology over this, I believe, was Norman who might well be called "a people person" today.
I get back in contact with Norman in 2021 but had to delay discussing the whole CE3K, abduction scene since the 1970s. A pity. I would have loved to have found out whether he had changed his opinions.
In the UK, Norman was the only person I think I could point to and say "He's respected -ask what he thinks!" if someone questioned my own work! He was open about these reports and knowledgeable.
His archives are now with the AFU in Sweden.
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