How the sinking of a Second World War ship led to one of the UK's last witch trials
When HMS Barham was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-331 in November 1941, a chain of events began that led to a medium being charged and imprisoned under the archaic Witchcraft Act of 1735.
The Queen Elizabeth-class battleship had sunk quickly, resulting in the deaths of more than 860 officers and crew members – two-thirds of the ship's company.
Following the sinking, during a séance in Portsmouth, Helen Duncan, known as Hellish Nell since childhood and the medium at the centre of this story, claimed to have spoken to the ghost of one of the sailors who perished that day.
However, there was a big problem – news of the ship's sinking hadn't been made public yet – so how did this lady from Callander in Perthshire know a sailor from HMS Barham was dead?
The Board of Admiralty kept the news of the sinking a closely guarded secret to avoid harming morale and to mislead the Axis powers.
However after a few weeks, close family members were told of their loved ones' fate on the condition the news didn't reach enemy ears.
News of HMS Barham's sinking was officially announced on 27 January 1942, but the séance in question happened two months before.
Sceptics insisted Mrs Duncan was preying on the bereaved for profit, targeting those whose loved ones had either been killed or were missing in action.
Others considered her offer of contacting the dead to be a kind act, helping those grieving to have the closure they needed.
Claiming to be speaking with a sailor from the ship, Mrs Duncan announced he wanted to let his loved ones know he died on HMS Barham.
While questions over the séance's authenticity remained, the simple fact Mrs Duncan seemed to know defence secrets alarmed those in the Admiralty.
It is believed some senior members of defence were concerned in 1944 the medium might be able to spill details about future operations such as D-Day, so a plan was hatched.
On a cold winter's night in January 1944, Mrs Duncan's séance at The Master's Temple Church of Spiritual Healing in Portsmouth was raided by the police.
The medium and three co-defendants – Ernest Edward Homer, Elizabeth Homer and Francis Brown – were charged and taken to the Portsmouth Magistrates' Court.
Initially, they were all charged under Section 4 of the Vagrancy Act of 1824.
This defined individuals who committed specific offences such as those who pretend or profess "to tell fortunes, or using any subtle craft, means, or device, by palmistry or otherwise, to deceive and impose on any of his Majesty's subjects" as rogues and vagabonds.
But eventually, Mrs Duncan was brought to trial at the Old Bailey in London under the Witchcraft Act of 1735.
This Act clarified that witchcraft itself was not a crime; however, it was illegal to falsely claim to perform witchcraft or fortune telling, recognising that those who practised witchcraft were fraudsters without real magical powers.
The last person legally executed for witchcraft in Britain was Janet Horne in 1727.
She was accused of turning her daughter into a pony and riding her to the Devil.
Last witch?
Many describe Mrs Duncan as being the last witch convicted under the Witchcraft Act of 1735.
However, Jane Rebecca Yorke might have something to say about that.
Ms Yorke, who rather inaccurately predicted the Second World War would end in October 1944, was spared jail and fined £5 due to her being considered too elderly at 72.
Therefore, while not the last witch to be tried under the Witchcraft Act of 1735, Mrs Duncan was the last to face imprisonment under the archaic law.
News of the trial spread far and wide, eventually landing on the desk of Prime Minister Winston Churchill who, in a memo written on 3 April 1944 to the then Home Secretary Herbert Morrison, called Mrs Duncan's trial "obsolete tomfoolery".
He wrote: "Let me have a report on why the Witchcraft Act 1735 was used in a modern Court of Justice.
"What was the cost of this trial to the State, observing that witnesses were brought from Portsmouth and maintained here in this crowded London for a fortnight, and the Recorder kept busy with all this obsolete tomfoolery, to the detriment of necessary work in the Courts?"
The trial lasted seven days and concluded with Mrs Duncan being found guilty.
The medium was sentenced to nine months in London's Holloway Prison, of which she served six.
Even after enduring time in jail, Mrs Duncan couldn't resist the allure of the supernatural and continued to hold séances upon her release.
Five years after the repeal of the Witchcraft Act, Mrs Duncan died, leaving behind members of her family desperate to clear her name.
A website run by the Helen Duncan Foundation, founded by Margaret Hahn, Mrs Duncan's granddaughter, states: "We don't want a pardon.
"We want those who wrongly convicted Helen to admit their wrongdoings and apologise with an admission that Helen was a remarkable medium who served the people."
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