Otherworld North East Research Society Journal 01 | Page 39

Journal 2007

7. Wartime Memories
By Tony Liddell

I

N SEPTEMBER 1939, THE NAZI War Machine began its attack on Poland, and the
Second World War erupted when Britain and France honoured their defensive pact this was a war in which statisticians claim nearly sixty-two million people lost their
lives. With six years of warfare before the War was finally won by the Allies, every element
of life at home in the England felt the effects, including those supposedly ‘spiritually’
inclined.
Public interest in spiritualism, and in this case the interest of the
police and the Royal Navy, was perked in 1941 when spiritualist
medium Helen Duncan reported during a séance the sinking of
a warship before the news was broadcast to the public. This
again happened in 1943 when Duncan reported the appearance
of a ghost who claimed to have died in the sinking of the
Barham. - a ship that was only declared sunk many months later.
It seems that the Government took an interest in Duncan after
this, citing her as a risk to the country’s security, speculation
claiming that what they feared was for their D-Day plans to be
‘seen’ by Duncan and leaked to the wrong people. On the 19th
January 1944, Helen Duncan was arrested, charged with
vagrancy. However, instead of the small fine for this alleged
Medium Helen Duncan
crime, she was held in London’s Victoria Prison