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Posted on 08/12/2026 1:18:16 PM PDT by BenLurkin
When HMS Barham was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-331 in November 1941, a chain of events began that led to a medium being charged and imprisoned under the archaic Witchcraft Act of 1735.
The Queen Elizabeth-class battleship had sunk quickly, resulting in the deaths of more than 860 officers and crew members – two-thirds of the ship's company.
Following the sinking, during a séance in Portsmouth, Helen Duncan, known as Hellish Nell since childhood and the medium at the centre of this story, claimed to have spoken to the ghost of one of the sailors who perished that day.
However, there was a big problem – news of the ship's sinking hadn't been made public yet – so how did this lady from Callander in Perthshire know a sailor from HMS Barham was dead?
The Board of Admiralty kept the news of the sinking a closely guarded secret to avoid harming morale and to mislead the Axis powers.
...
The medium and three co-defendants – Ernest Edward Homer, Elizabeth Homer and Francis Brown – were charged and taken to the Portsmouth Magistrates' Court.
Initially, they were all charged under Section 4 of the Vagrancy Act of 1824.
But eventually, Mrs Duncan was brought to trial at the Old Bailey in London under the Witchcraft Act of 1735. ...
The trial lasted seven days and concluded with Mrs Duncan being found guilty.
The medium was sentenced to nine months in London's Holloway Prison, of which she served six.
Even after enduring time in jail, Mrs Duncan couldn't resist the allure of the supernatural and continued to hold séances upon her release.
(Excerpt) Read more at forcesnews.com ...
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My younger sister is a witch.
Thanks BL.
So’s my ex-girl friend.
So was my practice wife. Oh, wait - she wasn’t a witch, she was a b
My 8th Great Grandfather was killed in the 1670’s by Witchcraft in Massachusetts.
Mrs. Duncan must’ve weighed about the same as a duck.
I noticed this detail in the article: “the Witchcraft Act of 1735...clarified that witchcraft itself was not a crime; however, it was illegal to falsely claim to perform witchcraft or fortune telling, recognising that those who practised witchcraft were fraudsters without real magical powers.”
So the 1735 law did not recognize the reality of witchcraft but assumed that witchcraft was a form of fraud !
Apparently the British were planning to keep it a secret until the end of the war, or as long as possible.
But the rumor was already circulating.
The footage of HMS Barham exploding was held from the public until after the war, iirc.
Don't be silly, Ms. Skitt. The answer is clear. He told her. And she was clearly guilty.
The democrats nominated a witch for president in 2016, and again in 2024.
“Dat girl be prakitn’ ritchcraf’!”
Wow. The lost of life on ship sinkings during WWII is appalling.
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