Everything about Harry Price totally explained
Harry Price (
January 17,
1881 –
March 29,
1948) was a British psychic researcher and author.
Early life
Not with standing his claim to be born in
Shropshire, Harry was born in
Red Lion Square on the site of the
South Place Ethical Society's Conway Hall. He was educated in
London at Waller Road School and
Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College, the Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham Boys School. When he was 15 years of age Price founded the
Carlton Dramatic Society and wrote small plays including a drama about his early experience with a poltergeist which he said took place at a haunted manor house in
Shropshire.
A few years later, Price came to the attention of the Press when he claimed an early interest in space-telegraphy. He set up a receiver and transmitter between
Telegraph Hill,
Hatcham and St Peter's Church
Brockley and captured a spark on a photographic plate, though according to the most recent biography of Price by
Richard Morris, this was nothing more than Harry writing a press release saying he'd done the experiment. 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 his autobiography,
Search for Truth, written between 1941 and 1942, Price claimed he was involved with archaeological excavations in Greenwich Park, London but in earlier writings on Greenwich denied he'd a hand in the excavation. From around May 1908 Price continued his interest in archaeology at
Pulborough,
Sussex where he'd moved to before marrying
Constance Mary Knight that August. As well as working for paper merchants Edward Saunders & Sons as a salesman he wrote for two local Sussex newspapers the
West Sussex Gazette and the
Southern Weekly News where he wrote about his remarkable propensity for discovering 'clean' antiquities. One of these, a silver ingot, (later announced a fake) was stamped around the time of the last Roman emperor
Honorius, a few years after another celebrated Sussex archaeologist
Charles Dawson found a brick at
Pevensey Fort in
Sussex which was purportedly made in Honorius' time. In 1910 Professor E.J Haverfield of Oxford University, the country's foremost expert on Roman history and a Fellow of the Royal Academy announced it a fake.
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.'
Interest in magic and conjuring
In his autobiography,
Search for Truth, Price said the “Great Sequah” in
Shrewsbury was "entirely responsible for shaping much of my life’s work", and lead to him acquiring the first volume of what would become the
Harry Price Library, Price later became an expert amateur conjurer, joined the
Magic Circle in 1922 and maintained a lifelong interest in stage magic and conjuring. His expertise in sleight of hand and magic tricks stood him in good stead for what would become his all consuming passion, the investigation of
paranormal phenomena.
Psychical research
Price's first major success in psychical research came in 1922 when he exposed the 'spirit' photographer
William Hope. During the same year, Price traveled to Germany together with Eric Dingwall and investigated
Willi Schneider, traveled to Mount
Brocken in
Germany to conduct a '
black magic' experiment in connection with the centenary of
Goethe, involving the transformation of a goat into a young man. The following year, 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 and, in 1934, the
University of London Council for Psychical Investigation was formed with Price as Honorary Secretary and Editor.
In 1934, the
National Laboratory of Psychical Research took on its most illustrious case. £50 was paid to the medium
Helen Duncan so that she could be examined under scientific conditions. A sample of Helen Duncan's
ectoplasm had been previously examined by the Laboratory and found to be largely made of egg white. Price found that Duncan's spirit manifestations were cheesecloth that had been swallowed and regurgitated by Duncan. Price later wrote up the case in
Leaves from a Psychist’s Case Book in a chapter called "The Cheese-cloth Worshippers". During Duncan's famous trial in 1944, Price gave his results as evidence for the prosecution.
Price's psychical research continued with investigations into Karachi's Indian rope trick and the fire-walking abilities of
Kuda Bux in 1935. He 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, he 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, conducted experiments with
Rahman Bey who was 'buried alive' in
Carshalton and drafted a Bill for the regulation of psychic practitioners. In 1939, he organized 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's archives were deposited with the University of London between 1976 and 1978 by his widow, and include his correspondence, drafts of his publications, papers relating to libel cases, reports on his investigations, press cuttings and photographs.
Published works
- Revelations of a Spirit Medium, with Eric J. Dingwall, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd, London, hardback, 1922.
- Cold Light on Spiritualistic "Phenomena" - An Experiment with the Crewe Circle, by Harry Price, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd, 1922.
- Stella C. An Account of Some Original Experiments in Psychical Research, Hurst & Blackett Ltd., hardback, 1925.
- Rudi Schneider: A Scientific Examination of his Mediumship, Methuen & Co. Ltd., hardback, 1930.
- Leaves from a Psychist’s Case Book, by Harry Price, Victor Gollancz Ltd., hardback, 1933.
- Confessions of a Ghost-Hunter, Putnam & Co. Ltd., London, hardback, 1936.
- The Haunting of Cashen's Gap: A Modern "Miracle" Investigated - With R.S. Lambert, Methuen & Co. Ltd., hardback, 1936.
- Fifty Years of Psychical Research: A Critical Survey Longmans, Green & Co. Ltd., hardback, 1939.
- The Most Haunted House in England: Ten Years' Investigation of Borley Rectory, Longmans, Green & Co. Ltd., hardback, 1940.
- Search for Truth: My Life for Psychical Research, Collins, London, hardback, 1942.
- Poltergeist Over England: Three Centuries of Mischievous Ghosts, Country Life Ltd., hardback, 1945.
- The End of Borley Rectory, Harrap & Co. Ltd., hardback, 1946.
Further Information
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