A BOGUS Lord who lodged with a Watford family in the mid 1980's and whose true identity caused international intrigue has been unveiled as Charles Albert Stopford III, a US citizen from Clearwater in Florida.

The identity of Stopford, who had been calling himself Christopher Edward Buckingham, The Earl of Buckingham had remained a mystery since his arrest by immigration officials as he attempted to board a Calais to Dover Ferry.

However new details about the mysterious figure were revealed in a television documentary aired on Sunday.

The real Christopher Buckingham was born in 1962 in Lambeth, south London, but died in West Sussex the following year. And Stopford took over the dead baby's identity in a similar way to the assassin in novel, The Day of the Jackal Stopford was jailed for 21 months for passport offences in November but still refused to reveal who he was, even to his children and ex wife. The sentence was reduced to nine months in January and Stopford was released into immigration custody, where he has still refused to tell investigators who he really is.

Investigations at the time by the Watford Observer found that his life of deceit may have begun in the town when he used the false name to marry Jody Hussey on December 7, 1984 at Watford Registry Office.

The marriage certificate gives "Buckingham's" address, and that of his new wife, as Whippendell Road.

And an entry in the Electoral Register kept at Watford Central Library shows two entries in the name of Buckingham at the Whippendell Road address between 1984 and 1986, although his wife did not appear.

For full story story see Friday's printed version of the Watford Observer.