The Spiritualist Story
One of the strangest stories about the sinking of HMS Barham
was a story in the Portsmouth News about a Scottish psychic
medium named Helen Duncan. She was born in November 1897, the
daughter of a cabinet maker. She was well known in the British
Isles in the 1930s and 1940s and the during and after the war.
She had been unjustly imprisoned and a group of people wanted
her case expunged from the books.
Barham was sunk on 25 November 41 in the afternoon. She was
hit by three torpedoes from the U331at point-blank range and
exploded within five minutes with 862 lives lost and 495 saved.
To cover up the sinking from the public, it was not announced
until April 42and the list those men lost and who survived
also given. The official photographs of it were not printed
in the newspapers until July 45.
Duncan was to conduct a seance in Portsmouth on 19 January
44 in an apartment. Portsmouth was the home base of Barham
and it was where the next-of-kin lived. Duncan wanted to bring
them in touch with their lost husbands. The Admiralty in London
were not happy about this and the Chief Constable of Portsmouth
got wind of it and sent a plain-clothed officer to attend it.
Duncan practiced materialisation which was the production
of ectoplasm -exteriorized substance- from the human body in
the form of a white cloud. It was said that she regurgitated
white muslin from her stomach. Most people consider this practice
a fraud, even the famous Houdini agreed with this. That night
she was supposed to be in touch with the spirit of a naval
stoker from the Barham. She sat in a chair in a small curtained
cubicle in a dimly lit room and when the white substance started
to emerge from her mouth anmd come through the curtains the
police outside were whistled in and she was arrested. .
Duncan was brought to trial in London at the Old Bailey not
long after and the case created a sensation. She was charged
under the 1736 witchcraft Act; as “producing fraudulent
phenomena” affecting morale and security. It is believed
that the authorities wanted her put away to stop her making
further predictions on the expected European invasion from
England which could happen in the future. She had predicted
the sinking of HMS Hood. as well as the Barham. She was found
guilty and sentenced to nine months in Holloway prison. She
was suspected of working for the enemy although she was never
prosecuted for this . After her discharge she vowed she would
never conduct another séance, but soon recommenced her
ways .
Winston Churchill described it as “tomfoolery” and
wasting the courts valuable time. When he came back to power
after the war he repealed this act and legalised spiritualism.
The wife of the captain of Barham, Mrs Cook was a saintly
woman who spent her life looking after the wives of the sailors
who were lost. Her husband went down with his ship, clinging
to the bridge rail with his hand at the saluting position.
He was seen by a midshipman from Queen Elizabeth.. One woman
who lives in West Vancouver, my town, is the daughter of a
sailor who was lost, says her mother received two shillings
and sixpence, which was what was left of the pay of her dead
husband. She also received a widows pension which was small
to raise two children. She did receive a salary working in
a munitions factory. Her brother was born in December a month
after his father died. Helen Duncan died in November 1956.
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