1/16/2024 0 Comments Big seance podcast![]() ![]() Her defence was led by Charles Loseby, a passionate spiritualist. The 1735 Act was aimed at people who charged fees for fraudulent divination, healing or treasure-hunting, not at the supposed practice of those magical acts – but because it was titled the “Witchcraft Act”, journalists labelled Nellie Duncan a witch. That made Duncan potentially guilty of conspiracy with séance organisers to “pretend to exercise or use a kind of conjuration” (“conjuration” meaning the summoning of spirits). ![]() “Through the agency of the said Duncan, spirits of deceased persons appeared to be present,” the charges stated, “communicating with living persons.” She and the organisers were initially charged under the Vagrancy Act, used to prosecute travelling fortunetellers, but on February 8, prosecutors substituted more serious allegations under the Witchcraft Act 1735. In fact, we now know that Nuttall and Pinkerton had both been killed when their plane exploded on June 23 1943.įollowing complaints of distasteful speculation about war casualties, the police raided Duncan’s séance. Yet an enquiry at a further séance produced contradictory news: while his aircraft’s pilot, Robert Pinkerton, had died, Freddie was “living round about France, and someone is caring for him”. At one séance, the mother of missing RAF navigator Freddie Nuttall was told that he had been shot. In this blacked-out, bombed naval city, many had lost loved ones, and Duncan offered news from the beyond, or even hope that those missing in action had survived. In January 1944, over two years after the Barham sinking, Duncan was booked for a repeat visit to Portsmouth, to give materialisation séances. Being accepted by the London Spiritualists’ Alliance meant the opportunity to go on séance tours of Britain, bringing fame and wealth. Some observers confirmed her claims, although celebrity investigator Harry Price accused her of regurgitating muslin to fake materialisations. They tested her mediumship, strip-searching, photographing and X-raying her. In 1930, Duncan went to Edinburgh and London for appointments with psychic investigators. It looked awfully like muslin cloth, but her customers loved it. She and Henry set up a darkened séance room where white gloop – “ectoplasm” – appeared before paying visitors, flowing out of Nellie’s mouth and nose to manifest spirits’ bodies. As she fell into apparent trances, ghostly spirits would speak through her lips. Nellie Duncan took in washing as well as labouring in a bleaching plant, and in spite of all their troubles, she claimed joyful contact with God and the afterlife. Soon they had eight children – contraception was considered sinful – and a mountain of debt. More hopefully, in 1916 she married a cabinetmaker, Henry Duncan – but, trapped by poverty and overwork, the couple fell chronically ill. On becoming an unmarried mother at 17, she was disowned by her parents, and found dusty, dangerous work in a jute mill. She was born in Callander, near Stirling, in 1897, and as a child claimed the magical ability called “second sight”. In what way, people asked, could Nellie Duncan be a witch?ĭuncan had flirted with the supernatural her whole life. The British public was gripped by a modern witch-trial, shocked that a 200-year-old law had been revived. Even so, however, instead of facing straightforward allegations of deception and theft, Duncan had been charged under the 1735 Witchcraft Act. How did Duncan know Barham had sunk? Or was her revelation just a guess, a fraud in which she charged the bereaved to listen to nothing better than gossip? In 1944, prosecutors would judge her magical knowledge to be fake, and the Barham story would be told at the end of her trial for defrauding her customers. She makes it public long before the official announcement of the sinking. Helen – known as Nellie – speaks with the ghost of a Barham sailor, and reveals the ship’s loss. Yet, in Barham’s home port, Portsmouth, the sailors’ families soon hear rumours and visitors to the séances of Helen Duncan, a spiritualist medium, apparently witness a miracle. Jets of steam, smoke and iron fragments are thrown into the sky the ship sinks within minutes over 800 Navy men are killed almost simultaneously. It’s November 25 1941, and off the Egyptian coast, HMS Barham explodes after a U-boat torpedo strike. ![]()
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