# Nick Pope (1965–2026)

> Tribute site for Nick Pope, the British journalist and author who ran the
> Ministry of Defence's UFO desk from 1991 to 1994. Published with his wife,
> Elizabeth Weiss. This is not the footballer of the same name.

Nicholas George Pope was born in London on 19 September 1965 to Geoffrey George
Pope, an aeronautical engineer who directed the Ministry of Defence's Royal
Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, and Rosemary Pope. He joined the civil
service in 1985 and spent 21 years at the Ministry of Defence. From 1991 to 1994
he was its UFO desk, the department's only staff member on the subject, assessing
what reported sightings meant for defence, national security and flight safety.
He ran a cold case review of the 1980 Rendlesham Forest incident. He arrived a
skeptic, changed his mind, and later began doubting again. The press called him
the real-life Fox Mulder.

He wrote six books. He met Elizabeth Weiss, a professor of anthropology, in the
lobby bar of the Fairmont Hotel in San José in October 2010, and married her
sixteen weeks later. They settled in Tucson, Arizona. He was diagnosed with
stage 4 oesophageal cancer in July 2025, by which point it had spread to his
liver, and died at home in Tucson on 6 April 2026, aged 60.

## Pages

- [Nick Pope, 1965–2026](https://www.nickpope.net/): Nick Pope ran the British Ministry of Defence’s UFO desk from 1991 to 1994. He died at home in Tucson, Arizona on 6 April 2026, aged 60. A tribute from his wife Elizabeth Weiss and the people who knew him.
- [His Life](https://www.nickpope.net/life): From London in 1965 to Tucson in 2026. The twenty one years at the Ministry of Defence, the six books, meeting Elizabeth Weiss in a hotel bar in San José, and the last months at home.
- [Archive](https://www.nickpope.net/archive): Nick Pope’s six books, the cases he worked at the Ministry of Defence including Rendlesham Forest, Calvine and Project Condign, and his original website preserved on the Wayback Machine.

## Elsewhere

- [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Pope_(journalist)): biography
- [Amazon author page](https://www.amazon.com/stores/Nick-Pope/author/B001KISGAC): all six books
- [nickpope.net, archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20260304035831/https://nickpope.net/wpte19/): his own site, preserved on the Wayback Machine