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Campaigners bid to clear the 'witch' who leaked WWII secrets about sinking battleship[UK]
Daily Mail ^ | 01 Mar 2008 | Andy Dolan

Posted on 03/02/2008 10:55:54 AM PST by BGHater

When the battleship Barham was torpedoed by the Germans in November 1941, with the loss of over 800 lives, the Admiralty delayed announcing the news to maintain morale.

But the secrecy was ended within a few days when medium Helen Duncan told a couple during a seance that their son, a sailor on the ship, had appeared from the spirit world to tell them it had sunk.

helen duncan

Witch? Helen Duncan, pictured in a portrait from 1931, was jailed for nine months in 1944 under the Witchcraft Act of 1735

In one of the most bizarre acts of the Second World War, Mrs Duncan was accused of leaking military secrets - and became the last woman jailed as a witch in the UK.

Now campaigners want an official pardon for the Scots-born mother of six, who spent nine months in Holloway Prison, north London.

Helen Duncan had a vision the HMS Barham would be involved in a wartime tragedy

A group of mediums have handed a petition to the Scottish Parliament, calling on it to lobby Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

Campaigner Roberta Gordon, from Gullane, East Lothian, said: "At the time the country was paranoid about security and the evidence used against her wasn't accurate.

"It would take away the stigma from her granddaughters and the great-grandsons."

Mrs Duncan was one of Britain's best-known mediums. During her seances she produced "ectoplasm" - a stringy white substance that is supposed to give form to spirits and allow them to communicate.

Paranormal investigators denounced her as a fraud who used cheesecloth and egg whites, but her family insist she was genuine, "an ordinary woman with a gift".

Helen Duncan, here with husband Henry, after the war, was the last person in Britain to be jailed under the Witchcraft Act

Despite the controversy, Mrs Duncan reputedly numbered Winston Churchill and George VI among her clients.

Churchill denounced the case against her as "obsolete tomfoolery" and visited her in prison.

The Barham, a 29,000-ton battleship, was hit by three German torpedoes in the Mediterranean on November 25, 1941.

Stigma: Helen Duncan's granddaughter Mary Martin

The ship went down within minutes, with the loss of 861 lives. Already reeling from the Blitz, the British government decided not to make the news public, not least to keep the Germans guessing.

But Duncan, who was living in Portsmouth at the time, held a seance just days later and told how she saw a sailor with the words HMS Barham on his hatband.

He told her: "My ship is sunk". News of the revelation reached the Admiralty and she was placed under observation. But she was not arrested until January 1944.

The trial in March 1944 caused a media sensation as Mrs Duncan was accused of being a traitor.

But the prosecution struggled to back the claim and she was convicted instead under the 1735 Witchcraft Act, which had declared there could be no such thing as a medium.

She was the last person in Britain jailed under the act, which was repealed in 1951. The last person convicted, East Londoner Jane Yorke, 72, escaped with a fine in October 1944 due to her age.

Mrs Duncan died in 1956, soon after being arrested again in a police raid on a seance.

Last year the Criminal Cases Review Commission rejected a petition for her to be pardoned, saying it would not be in the public interest.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: battleship; godsgravesglyphs; uk; witch; witchcraft; wwii
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1 posted on 03/02/2008 10:55:57 AM PST by BGHater
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To: BGHater

There’s some famous footage of the Barham capsizing and blowing up. It appears on The History Channel every time the show involves a ship exploding, but is never identified as the Barham.


2 posted on 03/02/2008 10:59:54 AM PST by ozzymandus
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To: BGHater

Great story.


3 posted on 03/02/2008 11:04:44 AM PST by Age of Reason
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To: BGHater
The film of the Barham sinking is one of the most frequently shown sequences from WW2. It shows the ship torn apart by a massive explosion as she rolls over on her beam ends.
4 posted on 03/02/2008 11:04:49 AM PST by atomic conspiracy (Rousing the blog-rabble since 9-11-01)
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To: BGHater

What do they mean “leaked?” This sort of reminds me of the claim that Rove “leaked” Plame’s secret identity, which just like this situation, was impossible since he did not even know Plame’s identity.


5 posted on 03/02/2008 11:05:31 AM PST by Brilliant
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To: BGHater

GRAB YOUR TORCH AND PITCHFORKS EVERYBODY!


6 posted on 03/02/2008 11:06:23 AM PST by MadDoctorD (Thumpin' old folk since 1988!)
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To: BGHater

“leaking military secrets”

Maybe Drudge told her. :)


7 posted on 03/02/2008 11:06:34 AM PST by Taking Congress back in 2010
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To: BGHater
"Churchill denounced the case against her as "obsolete tomfoolery" and visited her in prison."

But she was heavier than the goose, and the goose floated.


8 posted on 03/02/2008 11:09:02 AM PST by Slump Tester (What if I'm pregnant Teddy? Errr-ahh -Calm down Mary Jo, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it)
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To: BGHater
A stupid law, but guilty as charged.
9 posted on 03/02/2008 11:11:54 AM PST by BallyBill (Serial Hit-N-Run poster)
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To: BGHater
jailed for nine months in 1944 under the Witchcraft Act of 1735

My ex-wife is glad that she doesn't live in Great Britian.

10 posted on 03/02/2008 11:13:26 AM PST by neodad (USS Vincennes (CG 49) "Checkmate Cruiser")
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To: MadDoctorD

11 posted on 03/02/2008 11:23:09 AM PST by BerryDingle (I know how to deal with communists, I still wear their scars on my back from Hollywood-Ronald Reagon)
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To: BGHater

Here. HMS Barham

http://www.worldisround.com/articles/16107/index.html


12 posted on 03/02/2008 11:24:35 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Only infidel blood can quench Muslim thirst-- Abdul-Jalil Nazeer al-Karouri)
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To: Brilliant
IIRC, the London Times crossword puzzle guy found himself in a pickle, too.

Leading up to D-Day, he was using the code names of various projects, including "OVERLORD".

13 posted on 03/02/2008 11:28:03 AM PST by Calvin Locke
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To: BGHater
"But Duncan, who was living in Portsmouth at the time"

Given that Portsmouth was a major naval base, maybe there was a very good chance she had actually heard something specific from a source in the Royal Navy?? If she was a major 'medium' she probably had all sorts of interesting personal connections, especially among a few wives of officers and/or sailors etc. Maybe it was a more definite 'leak' of sensitive info than all the witchcraft nonsense would suggest, and they just charged her under a convenient though ludicrous statute.....???
14 posted on 03/02/2008 11:29:57 AM PST by Enchante (Obama: I'll eagerly kiss Castro's cold dead ass, that's my foreign policy!!)
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To: BGHater
Quija
15 posted on 03/02/2008 11:30:44 AM PST by Snickering Hound
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To: BGHater
I doubt there's much warrant for pardoning her. I think what leaves people agape is that there was still a "Witchcraft" law in Britain that she ended up being tried under, but according to the BBC "she was the last person in Britain to be jailed under the act, which was repealed in 1951 and replaced with the Fraudulent Mediums Act".

I don't have a problem with a Fraudulent Mediums Act, and this woman was definitely a fraud. What seems to have drawn special attention to her is that some of her clients were privy to state secrets which she ended up leaking in order to establish her bonafides.

16 posted on 03/02/2008 11:33:31 AM PST by SpringheelJack
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To: BGHater

This is similar to the case in the US during WWII (1944) when ‘Astounding’ science fiction magazing (today ‘Analog’) published a story anticipating the atomic bomb. The publisher, John W. Campbell, was visited by the FBI and accused of publishing secret material and demanding the issue be removed from newsstands. Reportedly, Campbell managed to convince the FBI that would draw more attention to the US atomic bomb program than just ignoring it. And that’s what they did.


17 posted on 03/02/2008 11:38:07 AM PST by FFranco
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To: SpringheelJack
What seems to have drawn special attention to her is that some of her clients were privy to state secrets which she ended up leaking in order to establish her bonafides.

Agreed.

18 posted on 03/02/2008 11:56:28 AM PST by mtbopfuyn (The fence is "absolutely not the answer" - Gov. Rick Perry (R, TX))
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To: BGHater
Essentially we have a con woman who wheedled a military secret out of one of her marks and then revealed the secret in a manner calculated to enhance the profits from her con game, without any regard for the effect it might have on the war effort.

The state could not prove who told her the secret and therefore could not secure a conviction within the normal statute, so they dusted off an older one which could be used to punish her.

The outdated law is now abolished and cannot threaten con artists anymore, she got what she deserved and there is no need to exonerate her since she did something pretty evil and disgusting.

19 posted on 03/02/2008 12:05:01 PM PST by wideawake (Why is it that those who call themselves Constitutionalists know the least about the Constitution?)
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To: neodad

Wonder if we could get Hitlery to go to England for an extended stay? Hmmm.


20 posted on 03/02/2008 12:06:53 PM PST by bigfootbob
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