As a little little girl in Callander , Scotland , in the earliest days of the 20th C , Helen MacFarlane was known for acting like a tomboy . Her rowdiness and sometimes - wild surliness leave rise to her sobriquet , " Hellish Nell . ” But she also be intimate for something else — her seeming ability to communicate with spirits and her frequent visit from ghosts .
Banished from the mob home at age 16 after getting pregnant , she run on to marry a devoted Spiritualist named Harry Duncan , who believed in her powers . In the wake of World War I and its massive death bell , communicating with the stagnant via spirit mediums became a popular pursuit , and the impudently named Helen Duncan found a raw mission in life : she became a Spiritualist sensitive . ( Though the term “ Spiritualist ” is often misused today to mean someone who is “ spiritual , ” it was once a boom religion that involved transmit with the numb . )
Duncan earned her live travel throughout Britain , acquit séances at spiritualist societies and in secret nursing home and charging admission for her services . Duncan was eff as a " materialization medium"—someone who could not just commune with the dead but produce physical materialisation of them . Her séances ofttimes included strings of otherworldly white ectoplasm produced from various orifices , as well as spiritual images of the nerve and body of departed " spirit guide . "
However , a1931 investigation by famed psychic researcher Harry Priceconcluded that the ectoplasm was actually cheesecloth covered in egg Edward D. White , iron Strategic Arms Limitation Talks , and other chemical , which Duncan put in in her tum and then regurgitated . The " spirits " were pictures cut from magazines , while a “ apparitional script ” glimpse in one séance was revealed to be a natural rubber glove . damage ’s investigations fail to dip exuberance for Duncan ’s séances , however . Neither did a 1933 trial and imprisonment for fallacious mediumship , which resulted after one of Duncan ’s spirit guide , " Peggy , " was revealed to be a waistcoat . As thecultural historiographer Malcolm Gaskill wrote forHistory Today , “ Spiritualists … flourish on spirit of persecution by orthodox science , unionised religion , and , above all , the police , who look for to protect the populace against imposture . Accordingly , Helen Duncan was lionised and her fame grew to the extent that even a article of faith for role player at Edinburgh in 1933 saw her hailed as a martyr . "
After the outbreak of World War II , Duncan ’s services were specially in demand . The spirits offered consolation amid fear and despair , and in some cases , even shared information that seemingly broke through the tight cerement of secrecy the government had imposed . But it was this wartime mood that proved to be Duncan ’s unfastening .
In November 1941 , the battleshipHMSBarhamwas sunk by German bomber , with more than 800 lives lost . The British government censored news of the sinking feeling to protect morale ; by some written report , they even forge Christmas bill of fare from all in sailors to their families . A few month later , however , at a séance in Portsmouth ( the town where Duncan lived , which also happened to be home to the Royal Navy ) , Duncan differentiate a mother that her son had appeared wearing a hatband with the wordsHMSBarhamon it and saying : " My ship is sunk . "
When newsworthiness of the séance reach officials , they were alarm . And once readiness for D - Day began , they decided to take action mechanism . By some accounts , Duncan had also bring out specific detail of the sinking feeling of theHMSBroadwaterin 1941 , and there were concerns that her entropy — whatever its source — would endanger the secrecy postulate for a successful invasion of lodge in France .
In January 1944 , constabulary burst into one of Duncan ’s séances , hold her and three members of the consultation . She was earlier charged under Section 4 of the 1824 Vagrancy Act , which was usually used at the time to penalize offense relate to fortune - tattle , astrology , and otherworldliness . Such charges usually lead in no more than a amercement . But Duncan ’s case was different : as Gaskill notes , " at this most sensible point in the war the authorities wanted her in prison . " In March , Duncan was prosecuted at London ’s Old Bailey for confederacy to contradict the Witchcraft Act of 1735 , the first change of its sort in more than a century .
Despite what it sound like , the Witchcraft Act was n’t imply to pursue actual witches , so much as penalize hoi polloi for pretending to have the powers of a witch . During the visitation , which was a medium sensation , Duncan was accused of pretending “ to exercise or use human conjuration ” so “ spirits of departed individual should come along to be present . ”
Her attorney , a spiritualist himself , assay to defend her by proving she was n’t just make . He called more than 40 witnesses who had seen Duncan ’s powers at workplace , and even offered a individual séance to the panel ( they declined ) . The defense , however , was unsuccessful , and Duncan was lag for nine month at North London ’s Holloway womanhood ’s prison house , the last soul to be jailed under the act .
Winston Churchill , who was then prime government minister , denounced Duncan ’s conviction as " obsolete tomfoolery . " By some accounts , he also impose her in jail . In 1951 , he eventually repealed the 200 - year - old Witchcraft Act , but Duncan ’s conviction stood . She died five years later , shortly after yet another police raid . To this day , family extremity and others are work out to pass her name .
