Navy

Call For Pardon Of 'Witch' Who Predicted Battleship Sinking

Calls are growing for a pardon of "Britain’s last witch", who was jailed for correctly predicting the sinking of a Royal Navy battleship.

Helen Duncan was sentenced to nine months in jail for witchcraft in 1944 after she had a premonition about the sinking of HMS Barnham - before the news was announced to the public.

Duncan, from Stirlingshire, was the last person to be imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act of 1735.

In 1941, during the Second World War, Duncan held a séance where she claimed the spirit of a sailor told her the Queen Elizabeth-class ship had been sunk.

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The ship had been torpedoed by a German U-boat on the November 24 that year but the news had not yet been made public.

HMS Barham

However, the Royal Navy had sent out a letter to the families of the 861 personnel who had died and the news of the disaster had spread.

Duncan was considered a threat to national security and some thought she could have jeopardised the outcome of the war.

Campaigners are now calling for her pardon, as Cambridge University Library displays several items linked to the so-called 'witch' as part of celebrations marking its 600th anniversary.

Graham Hewitt, who is leading the campaign on behalf of Duncan's grandchildren, told The Daily Telegraph the case echoed that of World War Two codebreaker Alan Turing:

"[Alan] Turing's law has set a precedent for Helen's pardon to come. The circumstances are almost identical. Like Alan Turing, Helen was convicted under legislation now long repealed. There is a precedent and we are writing to the Scottish Government demanding they do the same."

Turing played a pivotal role in Britain's codebreaking efforts in the Second World War, only to be prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts. He accepted chemical castration as an alternative to prison, dying two years later. HM The Queen granted him a posthumous pardon in 2013.

Turing's Law, meanwhile, reversed the convictions of men charged with gross indecency for being homosexual.