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Scroll down for the options to play audio and video. On the third of Gagarin’s five days in Britain, immediately following his meeting with Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, on Thursday 13th July 1961,  he had the only private meeting of his visit with Captain Eric Brown where the press was not invited, no photographs were taken and no official record was kept.  During this “test pilot” to “test pilot” meeting, Gagarin clearly told Brown that he had ejected from his spacecraft. Although not in the same league as Brown, Brown considered Gagarin to be a test pilot. The Soviets consistently maintained that he had not but eventually, a decade later they conceded officially that Gagarin had bailed out and landed by parachute. When I asked Captain Brown why he had never published the details of his private meeting before, “no one asked me before” replied. At the time Captain Brown was the deputy director of Naval Air Warfare and the meeting took place between him, his deputy and colleague from the Admiralty who cou