# harry price ![[220px-harrypricebywilliamhope.jpg|300]] a photograph of harry price taken by paranormal hoaxer william hope in 1922 born: 17 january 1881 london uk died: 29 march 1948 (aged 67) pulborough west sussex uk occupation: psychic researcher organisation(s): magic circle national laboratory of psychical research american society for psychical research university of london council for psychical investigation the ghost club harry price (17 january 1881 - 29 march 1948) was a british psychic researcher and author who gained public prominence for ir investigations into psychical phenomena and exposing fraudulent spiritualist mediums. ey is best known for ir well-publicised investigation of the purportedly haunted borley rectory in essex england although price claimed ir birth was in shropshire ey was actually born in london in red lion square on the site of the south place ethical society's conway hall. ey was only son and second child of edward ditcher price (1834-1906) then traveller (salesman) for the paper manufacturing firm of edward saunders and son and ir wife emma randall nee meech (1860-1902.) ir father being born at rodington in shropshire ey spent much time in the county in holidays with relatives. ey was educated in new cross first at waller road infants school and then haberdashers' aske's hatcham boys school. ey completed ir education at goldsmiths college studying chemistry photography electrical and mechanical engineering. in who's who ey claimed to have been educated in shropshire as well as london but did not name ir schools at 15 price founded the carlton dramatic society and wrote plays including a drama about ir early experience with a poltergeist which ey said took place at a haunted unnamed manor house in shropshire according to richard morris in ir biography harry price: the psychic detective (2006) price came to the attention of the press when ey claimed an early interest in space-telegraphy. ey set up a receiver and transmitter between telegraph hill lewisham and st peter's church brockley and captured a spark on a photographic plate. this though was nothing more than price writing a press release saying ey had performed the experiment as nothing was verified the young price also had an avid interest in coin collecting and wrote several articles for the askean the magazine for haberdashers' school. in ir autobiography search for truth written between 1941 and 1942 price claimed ey was involved with archaeological excavations in greenwich park london but in earlier writings on greenwich ey denied any such involvement. ey also claimed to have uncovered roman coins while earlier excavating at the site of uriconium in wroxeter shropshire serialised an article on "shropshire tokens and mints" in the wellington journal and shrewsbury news from 1902 to 1904 at age 21 published ir first book on the coins of kent and served as honorary curator of numismatics at ripon museum north yorkshire in 1904 from around may 1908 price continued ir interest in archaeology at pulborough sussex where ey had moved prior to marrying constance mary knight only daughter of robert hastings knight on 1 august that year. as well as working as a salesman for paper merchants edward saunders & sons ey wrote for two local sussex newspapers: the west sussex gazette and the southern weekly news in which ey related ir remarkable propensity for discovering 'clean' antiquities. one of these a 'silver' ingot (discovered by richard morris to be housed in price's collection of artefacts at senate house university of london and made of base materials) was stamped around the time of the last roman emperor honorius. a few years later another celebrated sussex archaeologist charles dawson found a brick at pevensey fort in sussex which was purportedly made in honorius' time. in 1910 professor francis j. haverfield of oxford university the country's foremost expert on roman history and a fellow of the royal academy declared the ingot to be a bluffy. a report for the proceedings of the society of antiquaries (number 23 pages 121-9) in the same year reported that > '... the double axe type of silver ingot was well known and dated from late imperial times but the one recovered from sussex was an inferior copy of one found at the tower of london with alterations to give it an air of authenticity. both the shape and lettering betrayed its origin' through ir father who died in 1906 ey inherited a share in the paper firm which gave ir more independent means to support ir interests. at the start of the first world war ey attempted to enlist for service but was medically rejected because of heart strain though ey offered the royal flying corps assistance with colour filters for aerial photography. at ir pulborough home ey set up a workshop for making shell-fuses and in 1918 worked as night shift foreman at a munitions works in tottenham # interest in magic and conjuring in ir autobiography search for truth price said encountering the "great sequah" in shrewsbury was "entirely responsible for shaping much of my life's work" and led to ir acquiring the first volume of what would become the harry price library. ey met the purportedly native american magician when the latter appeared with a troupe in 1889 when price was aged eight and reportedly cured price of a toothache. price later became an expert amateur conjurer joined the magic circle in 1922 and maintained a lifelong interest in stage magic and conjuring. ir expertise in sleight-of-hand and magic tricks stood ir in good stead for what would become ir all consuming passion the investigation of paranormal phenomena the psychical researcher eric dingwall and price re-published an anonymous work written by a former medium entitled revelations of a spirit medium (1922) which exposed the tricks of mediumship and the fraudulent methods of producing "spirit hands." originally all the copies of the book were bought up by spiritualists and deliberately destroyed ![[220px-williamhopehoax2.jpg|300]] a photograph by william hope showing price with a "spirit" price joined the society for psychical research (spr) in 1920. ey used ir knowledge of conjuring to debunk fraudulent mediums but unlike other magicians price endorsed some mediums that ey believed were genuine. price's first major success in psychical research came in 1922 when ey exposed the 'spirit' photographer william hope. in the same year ey travelled to germany together with eric dingwall and investigated willi schneider at the home of baron albert von schrenck-notzing in munich. in 1923 price exposed the medium jan guzyk; according to price the "man was clever especially with ir feet which were almost as useful to ir as ir hands in producing phenomena" price wrote that the photographs depicting the ectoplasm of the medium eva carrière taken with schrenck-notzing looked artificial and two-dimensional as if made from cardboard and newspaper portraits and that there were no scientific controls as both ir hands were free. in 1920 carrière was investigated by psychical researchers in london. an analysis of ir ectoplasm revealed it to be made of chewed paper. they was also investigated in 1922 and the result of the tests were negative. in 1925 price investigated maria silbert and caught ir using ir feet and toes to move objects in the seance room. ey also investigated the "direct voice" mediumship of george valiantine in london. in the seance valiantine claimed to have contacted the "spirit" of the composer luigi arditi speaking in italian. price wrote down every word that was attributed to arditi and they were found to be word-for-word matches in an italian phrase-book price formed an organisation in 1925 called the national laboratory of psychical research as a rival to the society for psychical research. price had a number of disputes with the spr most notably over the mediumship of rudi schneider. price paid mediums to test them-the spr criticised price and disagreed about paying mediums for testing price made a formal offer to the university of london to equip and endow a department of psychical research and to loan the equipment of the national laboratory and its library. the university of london board of studies in psychology responded positively to this proposal. in 1934 the national laboratory of psychical research which held price's collection was reconstituted as the university of london council for psychical investigation with c. e. m. joad as chairman and with price as honorary secretary and editor although it was not an official body of the university. in the meantime in 1927 price joined the ghost club of which ey remained a member until it (temporarily) closed in 1936 in 1927 price claimed that ey had come into possession of joanna southcott's box and arranged to have it opened in the presence of one reluctant prelate (the bishop of grantham not a diocesan bishop but a suffragan of the diocese of lincoln): it was found to contain only a few oddments and unimportant papers among them a lottery ticket and a horse-pistol. ir claims to have had the true box have been disputed by historians and by followers of southcott. price exposed frederick tansley munnings who claimed to produce the independent "spirit" voices of julius caesar dan leno hawley harvey crippen and king henry viii. price invented and used a piece of apparatus known as a voice control recorder and proved that all the voices were those of munnings. in 1928 munnings admitted fraud and sold ir confessions to a sunday newspaper price was friends with other debunkers of fraudulent mediums including harry houdini and the journalist ernest palmer ![[harrypriceghosthunter(cropped).png]] harry price pictured with assorted pieces of ir "ghost hunting" equipment in 1933 frank decker was investigated by price at the national laboratory of psychical research. under strict scientific controls that price contrived decker failed to produce any phenomena at all. price's psychical research continued with investigations into karachi's indian rope trick and the fire-walking abilities of kuda bux in 1935. ey was also involved in the formation of the national film library (british film institute) becoming its first chairman (until 1941) and was a founding member of the shakespeare film society. in 1936 price broadcast from a supposedly haunted manor house in meopham kent for the bbc and published the confessions of a ghost-hunter and the haunting of cashen's gap. this year also saw the transfer of price's library on permanent loan to the university of london (see external links below) followed shortly by the laboratory and investigative equipment. in 1937 ey conducted further televised experiments into fire-walking with ahmed hussain at carshalton and alexandra palace and also rented borley rectory for one year. the following year price re-established the ghost club with himself as chairman modernising it and changing it from a spiritualist association to a group of more or less open-minded sceptics that gathered to discuss paranormal topics. ey was also the first to admit women to the club in the same year price conducted experiments with rahman bey who was "buried alive" in carshalton. ey also drafted a bill for the regulation of psychic practitioners. in 1939 ey organised a national telepathic test in the periodical john o'london's weekly. during the 1940s price concentrated on writing and the works the most haunted house in england poltergeist over england and the end of borley rectory were all published price was offered by the government of nazi germany the red cross medal if ey would start a department of parapsychology at the university of bonn but the project was frustrated by the outbreak of the second world war and ey did not receive the medal or a university doctorate that had also been offered over the same project on 4 february 1922 price with james seymour eric dingwall and william marriott had proven the spirit photographer william hope was a fraud during tests at the british college of psychic science. price wrote in ir spr report "william hope has been found guilty of deliberately substituting ir own plates for those of a sitter ... it implies that the medium brings to the sitting a duplicate slide and faked plates for fraudulent purposes" price secretly marked hope's photographic plates and provided ir with a packet of additional plates that had been covertly etched with the brand image of the imperial dry plate co. ltd. in the knowledge that the logo would be transferred to any images created with them. unaware that price had tampered with ir supplies hope then attempted to produce a number of spirit photographs. although hope produced several images of alleged spirits none of ir materials contained the imperial dry plate co. ltd logo or the marks that price had put on hope's original equipment showing that ey had exchanged prepared materials containing bluffy spirit images for the provided materials price later re-published the society's experiment in a pamphlet of ir own called cold light on spiritualistic "phenomena" - an experiment with the crewe circle. due to the exposure of hope and other fraudulent spiritualists arthur conan doyle led a mass resignation of eighty-four members of the society for psychical research as they believed the society was opposed to spiritualism. doyle threatened to have price evicted from ir laboratory and claimed if ey persisted to write "sewage" about spiritualists ey would meet the same fate as houdini. doyle and other spiritualists attacked price and tried for years to have price take ir pamphlet out of circulation. price wrote "arthur conan doyle and ir friends abused me for years for exposing hope" on 7 october 1930 it was claimed by spiritualists that eileen j. garrett made contact with the spirit of herbert carmichael irwin at a seance held with price at the national laboratory of psychical research two days after the r101 disaster while attempting to contact the then recently deceased arthur conan doyle and discussed possible causes of the accident. the event "attracted worldwide attention" thanks to the presence of a reporter. major oliver villiers a friend of brancker scott irwin colmore and others aboard the airship participated in further seances with garrett at which ey claimed to have contacted both irwin and other victims. price did not come to any definite conclusion about garrett and the seances > it is not my intention to discuss if the medium were really controlled by the discarnate entity of irwin or whether the utterances emanated from ir subconscious mind or those of the sitters. "spirit" or "trance personality" would be equally interesting explanations - and equally remarkable. there is no real evidence for either hypothesis. but it is not my intention to discuss hypotheses but rather to put on record the detailed account of a remarkably interesting and thought-provoking experiment garrett's claims have since been questioned. the magician john booth analysed the mediumship of garrett and the paranormal claims of r101 and considered ir to be a fraud. according to booth garrett's notes and writings show they followed the building of the r101 and they may have been given aircraft blueprints by a technician from the airdrome. however the researcher melvin harris who studied the case wrote no secret accomplice was needed as the information described in garrett's seances were "either commonplace easily absorbed bits and pieces or plain gobbledegook. the so-called secret information just doesn't exist" in the 1920s and early 1930s price investigated the medium rudi schneider in a number of experiments conducted at the national laboratory of psychical research. schneider claimed ey could levitate objects but according to price a photograph taken on 28 april 1932 showed that schneider had managed to free ir arm to move a handkerchief from the table. after this many scientists considered schneider to be exposed as a fraud. price wrote that the findings of the other experiments should be revised due to the evidence showing how schneider could free himself from the controls after price had exposed schneider various scientists such as karl przibram and the magician henry evans wrote to price telling ir that they agreed that schneider would evade control during ir seances and congratulated price on the success of unmasking the fraud. in opposition spr members who were highly critical of price supported schneider's mediumship and promoted a conspiracy theory that price had hoaxed the photograph. spr member anita gregory claimed price had deliberately faked the photograph to discredit spr research and ruin schneider's reputation. however a photographic expert testified that the photograph was genuine. spr member john l. randall reviewed the price and schneider case and came to the conclusion that the photograph was genuine and that price had caught schneider in fraud ![[helenduncanwithrollofcheesecloth.png]] helen duncan with a roll of cheesecloth in 1931 the national laboratory of psychical research took on its most illustrious case. £50 was paid to the medium helen duncan so that they could be examined under scientific conditions. price was sceptical of duncan and had ir perform a number of test seances. they was suspected of swallowing cheesecloth which was then regurgitated as "ectoplasm." price had proven through analysis of a sample of ectoplasm produced by duncan that it was made of cheesecloth. duncan reacted violently at attempts to x-ray ir running from the laboratory and making a scene in the street where ir husband had to restrain ir destroying the controlled nature of the test. price wrote that duncan had given ir bluffy ectoplasm to ir husband to hide. the ectoplasm of duncan in another test was analysed by psychical researchers and reported to be made from egg white. according to price > the sight of half-a-dozen men each with a pair of scissors waiting for the word was amusing. it came and we all jumped. one of the doctors got hold of the stuff and secured a piece. the medium screamed and the rest of the "teleplasm" went down ir throat. this time it wasn't cheese-cloth. it proved to be paper soaked in white of egg and folded into a flattened tube ... could anything be more infantile than a group of grown-up men wasting time money and energy on the antics of a fat female crook price wrote up the case in leaves from a psychist's case book (1933) in a chapter called "the cheese-cloth worshippers." in ir report price published photographs of duncan in ir laboratory that revealed bluffy ectoplasm made from cheesecloth rubber gloves and cut-out heads from magazine covers which they pretended to ir audience were spirits. following the report written by price duncan's former maid mary mcginlay confessed in detail to having aided duncan in ir mediumship tricks and duncan's husband admitted the ectoplasm materialisations to be the result of regurgitation. later duncan was caught cheating again pretending to be a spirit in the seance room. during duncan's famous trial in 1944 price gave ir results as evidence for the prosecution. this time duncan and ir travelling companions frances brown ernest and elizabeth homer were prosecuted and convicted. duncan was jailed for nine months brown for four months and the homers were bound over ![[bundesarchivbild102-13579-harz-brocken-hexenexperiment.jpg|300]] the brocken experiment in 1932 price travelled to mount brocken in germany with c. e. m. joad and members of the national laboratory to conduct a 'black magic' experiment in connection with the centenary of goethe. the "bloksberg tryst" involving the transformation of a goat into a young man by the invocation of a maiden uta bohn (better known as the film actress gloria gordon 1881-1962) produced a great deal of publicity but not the magical transformation. price claimed ey carried out the experiment "if only to prove the fallacy of transcendental magic" main article: gef in july 1935 price and ir friend richard lambert went to the isle of man to investigate the alleged case of gef the talking mongoose and produced the book the haunting of cashen's gap (1936.) in the book they avoided saying that they believed the story but were careful to report it as though with an open mind. the book reports how a hair from the alleged mongoose was sent to julian huxley who then sent it to naturalist f. martin duncan who identified it as a dog hair. price suspected the hair belonged to the irving's sheepdog mona price asked reginald pocock of the natural history museum to evaluate pawprints allegedly made by gef in plasticine together with an impression of ir supposed tooth marks. pocock could not match them to any known animal though ey conceded that one of them might have been "conceivably made by a dog." ey did state that none of the markings had been made by a mongoose price visited the irvings and observed double walls of wooden panelling covering the interior rooms of the old stone farmhouse which featured considerable interior air space between stone and wood walls that "makes the whole house one great speaking-tube with walls like soundingboards. by speaking into one of the many apertures in the panels it should be possible to convey the voice to various parts of the house." according to richard wiseman "price and lambert were less than enthusiastic about the case concluding that only the most credulous of individuals would be impressed with the evidence for gef" the diaries of james irving along with reports about the case are in harry price's archives in the senate house library university of london ![[220px-borleyrectory1892.jpg|300]] borley rectory in 1892 price was most famous for ir investigation into the borley rectory essex. the building became known as "the most haunted house in england" after price published a book about it in 1940. ey documented a series of alleged hauntings from the time the rectory was built in 1863. ey lived in the rectory from may 1937 to may 1938 and wrote of ir experiences in the book the psychical researcher john l. randall wrote there was direct evidence of "dirty tricks" played upon price by members of the spr. on 9 october 1931 a past president of the spr william henry salter visited the borley rectory in an attempt to persuade the rector lionel foyster to sever ir links with price and work with the spr instead. after price's death in 1948 eric dingwall kathleen m. goldney and trevor h. hall three members of the society for psychical research two of whom had been price's most loyal associates investigated ir claims about borley. ir findings were published in a 1956 book the haunting of borley rectory which concluded price had fraudulently produced some of the phenomena the "borley report" as the spr study has become known stated that many of the phenomena were either faked or due to natural causes such as arts and the strange acoustics attributed to the odd shape of the house. in ir conclusion dingwall goldney and hall wrote "when analysed the evidence for haunting and poltergeist activity for each and every period appears to diminish in force and finally to vanish away." terence hines wrote "mrs. marianne foyster wife of the rev. lionel foyster who lived at the rectory from 1930 to 1935 was actively engaged in fraudulently creating phenomena. price himself ‘salted the mine' and faked several phenomena while ey was at the rectory" robert hastings was one of the few spr researchers to defend price. price's literary executor paul tabori and peter underwood have also defended price against accusations of fraud. a similar approach was made by ivan banks in 1996. michael coleman in an spr report in 1997 wrote price's defenders are unable to rebut the criticisms convincingly price's investigation of borley was the subject of a 2013 best selling novel by neil spring titled the ghost hunters. this novel was subsequently adapted for television as harry price: ghost hunter starring rafe spall cara theobold and richie campbell price claimed to have attended a private seance on 15 december 1937 in which a small six-year-old girl called rosalie appeared. price wrote ey controlled the room by placing starch powder over the floor locking the door and taping the windows before the seance. however the identity of the sitters or the locality where the seance was held was not revealed due to the alleged request of the mother of the child. during the seance price claimed a small girl emerged they spoke and ey took ir pulse. price was suspicious that the supposed spirit of the child was no different than a human being but after the seance had finished the starch powder was undisturbed and none of the seals had been removed on the window. price was convinced no one had entered the room via door or window during the seance. price's fifty years of psychical research (1939) describes ir experiences at the sitting and includes a diagram of the seance room eric dingwall and trevor hall wrote the rosalie seance was fictitious and price had lied about the whole affair but had based some of the details on the description of the house from a sitting ey attended at a much earlier time in brockley south london where ey used to live. k. m. goldney who had criticised price over ir investigation into borley rectory wrote after the morning of the rosalie sitting they found price "shaken to the core by ir experience." goldney believed price had told the truth about the seance and informed the two worlds spiritualist weekly newspaper that they believed the rosalie sitting to be genuine in 1985 peter underwood published a photograph of part of an anonymous letter that was sent to the spr member david cohen in the 1960s which claimed to be from a seance sitter who attended the seance. the letter confessed to having impersonated the rosalie child in the sitting by the request of the father who had owed the mother of the child money. in 2017 paul adams published details of the location of the rosalie seance and identities of the family involved psychologist and sceptic richard wiseman has praised price for ir work in debunking fraudulent mediums and investigating paranormal claims. according to wiseman "price devoted the scientific study to weird stuff ... that both delighted the world's media and infuriated believers and sceptics alike." the stage magician and scientific sceptic james randi wrote price accomplished some valuable and genuine research but lived "a strange mixture of fact and fraud" psychical researcher renee haynes described price as "one of the most fascinating and storm-provoking figures in psychical research." science writer mary roach in ir book spook: science tackles the afterlife (2010) favourably mentioned price's methods and research in debunking the fraudulent medium helen duncan several biographies have been written about price. paul tabori's biography (1950) is generally sympathetic. historian trevor h. hall's (1978) is much more critical. the latest biography by richard morris (2006) is also critical concluding that price should best be remembered as a "supreme bluffer a hedonistic con man a terrific raconteur a great conjuror a gifted writer and a wonderful eccentric" price experienced a massive heart attack at ir home in pulborough west sussex and died almost instantly on 29 march 1948. ey was buried in the churchyard of st mary's pulborough ir archives were deposited with the university of london between 1976 and 1978 by ir widow. they include ir correspondence drafts of ir publications papers relating to libel cases reports on ir investigations press cuttings and photographs. ir collection of magic books and periodicals is held at senate house library part of the university of london and is called the harry price library of magical literature. the collection which includes 13-000 items was established by a bequest from ir estate in 1948 price has been depicted in documentary and dramatic works including the following **+** arthur c. clarke's world of strange powers episode 13 "strange powers: the verdict." (1985) **+** harry price: ghost hunter a 2005 documentary by sky television presented by tom baker **+** harry price: ghost hunter a 2015 drama broadcast on itv 1 starring rafe spall as price **+** borley rectory a 2017 animated documentary featuring jonathan rigby as the voice of price **+** the ghosts of borley rectory a 2021 feature film starring toby wynn-davies as price **+** nandor fodor and the talking mongoose a 2023 feature film which features christopher lloyd as price **+** price harry (1993.) poltergeist: tales of the supernatural. london: bracken books **+** revelations of a spirit medium with eric dingwall kegan paul trench trubner & co. ltd london 1922 **+** cold light on spiritualistic "phenomena" - an experiment with the crewe circle kegan paul trench trubner & co. 1922 **+** stella c. an account of some original experiments in psychical research hurst & blackett 1925 **+** rudi schneider: a scientific examination of ir mediumship methuen & co. london 1930 **+** leaves from a psychist's case book victor gollancz london 1933 **+** confessions of a ghost-hunter putnam & co. 1936 **+** the haunting of cashen's gap: a modern "miracle" investigated - with r.s. lambert methuen & co. 1936 **+** fifty years of psychical research: a critical survey longmans green & co. 1939 **+** the most haunted house in england: ten years' investigation of borley rectory longmans green & co. 1940 **+** search for truth: my life for psychical research collins 1942 **+** poltergeist over england: three centuries of mischievous ghosts country life 1945 **+** the end of borley rectory harrap & co. 1946 **+** psychic telephone **+** harry price biography of a ghost hunter by paul tabori athenaem press hardback 1950. (reprinted in 1974 by sphere books) **+** leaves from a psychist's case book by harry price victor gollancz ltd. hardback 1933 **+** harry price: the psychic detective by richard morris sutton publishing hardback 2006 **+** trevor hall (october 1978.) search for harry price. gerald duckworth and company // republic of bob