Britain’s largest Walter Mittys: The shameless fantasists who invented tales of bravery and wore faux medals to get adulation from the unsuspecting public

On Remembrance Sunday, millions around the country fell silent to honour the service and sacrifice of those who lost their lives in conflict.

At war memorials across the UK, including the Cenotaph in London, veterans proudly affixed their medals to their military dress uniforms.

But at one memorial in Llandudno, North Wales, there was national outrage after a suspected ‘fake admiral’ wore a row of 12 medals to a Remembrance Sunday commemoration.

Jonathan Carley, 64, has been charged with wearing uninform bearing the mark of His Majesty’s Forces without permission. He is alleged to have saluted the war memorial while wearing a combination of medals which no serviceman has ever won.

Former British Army Colonel Philip Ingram last week laid bare the psychology behind the ‘incredibly disrespectful’ people who impersonate veterans, telling the Mail: ‘They feel inadequate in themselves. They want to portray themselves as something they’re not, and that suggests there’s something in their life that has gone wrong.’

The latest alleged fake veteran incident has led to calls for a a new law – the Stolen Valour Act – to make pretending to be a war hero a specific crime.

Under the Uniform Act, it is already an offence to wear a military uniform without the monarch’s permission if you are not serving in His Majesty’s Military Forces.

For more than a decade, the Walter Mitty Hunters Club has been exposing fake war heroes. They have vowed to do so until a stolen valour law is introduced into the UK.

A member of the group told the Mail today: ‘It’s an insult to all those who have worked hard to get into the armed forces, and, in some cases, lost people close to them – the people actually doing the things the Walter Mittys like to boast about, but would never do themselves.’

James Edward Yeates

Earlier this year, the Daily Mail revealed the actor who starred in The Crown is a stolen valour conman who posed as an Army officer with fake medals.

The 42-year-old claimed to be a reservist Captain within the British Army’s intelligence corps, sharing pictures online in full uniform and sporting a chest full of medals. 

He even appeared to have taken part in function at the Honourable Artillery Company’s base in London alongside other veterans and serving personnel.

Here, he was seen wearing three medals – the Queen’s Diamond, Platinum Jubilee and King’s Coronation. 

Having founded Military and Aviation Advisors (MAA) Ltd in August 2023, Yeates boasted online about being a ‘LAMDA-trained actor, armed forces officer, and skilled pilot’.

But LAMDA confirmed they have no record of him being a student. And defence insiders said there were no records of him having ever served in the military.

He was later accused of ‘a despicable act of stolen valour’ amid claims he tried to dupe film firms into hiring him as a ‘military advisor’ with his fake army career.

‘Baz’ Porter 

If Porter had been awarded the medals he claimed, it would have made him one of the most decorated soldiers in recent history.

The former solider claimed to one of only three veterans alive who held the Victoria Cross and Queen’s Gallantry Medal.

He also pretended he had been awarded medals for Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, the Balkans and Northern Ireland. 

But in reality, he served in the Light Infantry from 1997 to 2004 and his former partner exposed his fake medal collection. 

He quickly closed down his website and social media accounts.

Josh King 

The ‘jealous’ parish councillor was caught out after wearing his cousin’s war medals.

King claimed he was a decorated Army veteran who was shot 21 times by the IRA. He insisted he was awarded a war medal for his time in the Parachute Regiment during the Falklands.

But his disgraceful lies were exposed by Wiltshire villagers who were paying their respects at the local 40th anniversary Falklands parade.

King was forced to resign from Wroughton parish council in 2022 and later apologised on Facebook, revealing the medals he had worn were his cousin’s.

In a now-deleted post, he said: ‘My cousin, who I never got on with, got to serve and me? Well, I grew bitter and jealous. The lies got bigger along with the stories.’

Chris Webber 

Webber is another example of a fake war hero who stole medals from family members who did actually sacrifice their lives in conflict.

Pretending he was a Falklands War veteran, Webber duped Rishi Sunak at 10 Downing Street where he boasted about risky undercover operations.

However, he was exposed by the Walter Mitty Hunters club who spotted two of his medals were non-military and his cap badge dated back to King George VI’s reign.

Webber served a few months in the Territorials, but other than that was simply a holiday rep and pub singer under the name Cushty.

He later admitted: ‘My grandfather and father both served in the Second World War and I wanted to be like them.’ 

Edward Stewart

Condemned as a ‘complete Walter Mitty character’, Stewart pretended to be an SAS hero and a former bodyguard for Princess Diana. 

The fraudster bragged that he spent 30 years in the Army before becoming a royal protection officer. He even claimed he had protected Prince George from a terror attack.

In another insult to war heroes, Stewart was jailed in 2021 after stealing from his 94-year-old father, a genuine veteran.

Jailing him for withdrawing £1,666 from his father’s bank cards, Judge Simon Hickey told Stewart: ‘Unlike you, he is of impeccable character. You are a complete Walter Mitty character.’

Greg Brackenridge

The former mayor sparked outrage when it emerged he had falsely claimed he had served as a Royal Marine.

Brackenridge was investigated by the City of Wolverhampton Council in July, which concluded he had breached a code of conduct for exaggerating his military service.

He had made the false claims in 2021 during a speech when he unveiled a statue to commemorate Sikh soldiers who died during the Battle of Saragarhi.

Brackenridge was accused by Labour councillors of ‘letting the city down’.

However, he is now sitting as an independent and refusing to resign, despite widespread anger. 

Mark Izzard

Lorry driver Izzard lied to his partner Tracey for 15 years that he’d fought for his country in Iraq and had his knee obliterated in battle.

To perpetuate the lie he posed for ‘official’ photographs in a fancy dress beret while gripping a BB gun – and even sent himself letters through the post confirming his discharge from the SAS, which he asked his wife to open, as he manufactured an entirely fictional past for almost two decades.

She fell for every word he said, and died of cancer in 2012 content she’d spent the best years of her life married to a decorated military hero. 

He also posted fake photos of troops and pretended they were pictures of him firing a mortar in Bosnia. 

Izzard’s stepson Danny, 22, from Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, said: ‘I felt sorry for mum. Basically, their whole relationship was a lie.’ 

Martin Heaver 

Condemned as a ‘despicable’ phoney, Heaver posed as a member of the Parachute Regiment to con people into sponsoring him for a charity challenge.

Heaver, from Grantham, Lincolnshire, raised £1,000 after announcing he was doing parachute jumps to help get a terminally ill five-year-old child to Disneyland in Florida.

In a bid to maintain his lie, he bought a military t-shirt and beret on eBay.

However, a trial heard how his whole story was a lie and the girl did not exist.

Heaver was caught out after a newspaper photographer became suspicious of him and sounded the alarm. 

Jailing him for six months, Judge Sean Morris told Heaver: “What you did was despicable. People were taken in.

Jo England 

England claimed she was awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal during an Afghanistan tour with the Royal Army Medical Corps.

Posing as one of the most highly decorated combat doctors, she claimed to have performed vital surgery and helped children in Africa and soldiers on the frontline in Ukraine. 

But the Ministry of Defence confirmed she never served in the Army, exposing her as a lying fantasist.

She unapologetically admitted wearing the medal ‘for a laugh’, having borrowed it from a friend. 

Peter Jackson

The former mayor and Liberal Democrat councillor posed as a decorated war hero at his town’s Remembrance Day service in 2021.

He wore the Queen’s Gallantry Medal and claimed he served with the Royal Military Police in the Falklands.

However, an investigation later revealed he was a fake war hero who had never served in the Falklands.

In January 2022, his wife, Fiona Jackson, told the Daily Mail that he was a cheating husband who bought his military uniform on eBay.

She said he had made out to her that he had served in the Royal Military Police before suddenly getting a uniform and wearing it with a selection of medals after claiming he had been made an honorary Lt Colonel.

Mrs Jackson said: ‘I don’t know about the medals. I presumed they were real but obviously not, so I have been living that lie as well.’

Nick Adderley 

The former Northamptonshire Police chief constable last week appeared in court accused of lying about his military experience.

The 59-year-old was charged with fraud and misconduct in public office and fired without notice in June.

He is alleged to have falsely claimed he was a former lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy, served in the Falklands War and was entitled to wear medals.

The claims also allegedly appeared on his CV as he launched his bid to become chief constable.

His case has been sent to the crown court.