Helen
Duncan
Helen Duncan (1897 – 1956) was a Scottish medium,
best known as the last person to be convicted under
the British Witchcraft Act of 1735. Duncan was born
in Callander, Perthshire, northwest of Stirling, in
November, 1897. The daughter of a cabinet-maker, she
made her name as a medium by offering seances in which
she appeared to summon the spirits of recently deceased
persons by emitting ectoplasm from her mouth. A mother
of six and the wife of a wounded veteran, she also
worked part-time in a bleach factory. In 1931, Duncan's
method was examined by the London Spiritual Alliance.
After an initial positive review, both that Alliance
and Harry Price denounced her as a fraud, alleging
that she previously swallowed all the material she
emitted from her mouth and used other forms of deceit
to trick seance participants. Her defenders claimed
to have witnessed events that could not be explained
by trickery. In 1934, during a seance in Edinburgh,
a sitter made a grab at one of her materialisations.
The police were called, and the "spirit" was found
to be a stockinette undervest. She was found guilty
of fake mediumship at Edinburgh Sheriffs Court and
sentenced to a £10 fine or one month in prison.
Duncan's apologists have later claimed that the verdict
was not "guilty" but the peculiar Scottish verdict
of not proven. But if this were the case, she would
not have been sentenced. During World War II, Duncan
held a seance in Portsmouth at which she indicated
knowledge that HMS Barham had been sunk. Because this
fact had been kept from the public, the British Admiralty
chose to attempt to discredit her.
Police arrested her after another seance. She was
initially arrested for vagrancy, a minor offence.
Soon, however, the charge was increased, and she faced
first conspiracy and then witchcraft charges. The
seeming overzealousness of this prosecution may be
explained by the mood of near-paranoia surrounding
the impending Battle of Normandy. There were also
concerns that she was exploiting the recently-bereaved.
It should be noted that the government did not believe
she had practised witchcraft; the 1735 statute covers
fraudulent "spiritual" activity.
Duncan's trial for witchcraft was a minor cause célèbre
in wartime London. A number of prominent people, among
them Alfred Dodd, testified that they were convinced
that she was authentic. Duncan was however, barred
by the Judge from demonstrating her alleged powers
as part of her defence against being fraudulent. In
a memo to the home secretary, Winston Churchill fulminated
about the "obsolete tomfoolery" of the trial. However,
he could not prevent a guilty verdict. Duncan was
jailed for nine months. On her release, Duncan promised
to stop conducting seances; however, she was arrested
after another one in 1956. She died a short time later.
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