Battersea’s Poltergeist

31 Aug

Have you watched Timothy Spall’s The Enfield Haunting? It is arguably Britain’s most famous poltergeist phenomena, having also been the subject of the sequel to the Conjuring film.

Seance conducted by spiritualist Harry Hanks

But back in 1956, a more famous case of poltergeist took place in South London, which was heavily reported by the press and eventually made its way in a House of Commons debate.

The events took place over a prolonged period at No. 63 Wycliff Road, but seem not to have been about a typical haunted house affair, but rather revolved around a possessive ghost which attached itself to the household’s daughter Shirley Hitchings.

The case saw a large number of witnesses confirm many strange phenomena including objects flying, furniture moving and objects disappearing. With time these happenings became more intense and threatening even leading to injuries. There were numerous incidents of spontaneous combustion, one of which saw Shirley’s father suffering severe burns.

Various journalists visited the home, some staying overnight and reporting drops of temperature, uneasiness and the rapping sounds which would wake up even the neighbours. Seances were conducted and one of them saw the police storm the gathering after a black magic event had been denounced by locals. This particular incident led the local MP to bring up the police’s abuse of power with his spiritualist constituent.

Eventually the ghost was named Donald by the family, and despite his mischievous behaviour a sort of relationship developed between them. He would answer questions in a one-knock-yes and two-knocks-no fashion, and eventually revealed his identity as that of Louis Charles, who became the King of France Louis XVII upon the execution of his father during the reach Revolution. The child has been the subject of many conspiracy theories over his survival and escape across the Channel, however in the 2000 a heart which had been preserved as a relic by royalists and donated to the Basilica of St Denis was DNA tested and compared to to locks of hairs of Queen Marie Antoinette and other relatives and descendants, revealing the organ to be that of Louis Charles. This finally confirmed the boy did die aged 10 from scrofula in the aftermath of his imprisonment and mistreatment by zealot revolutionaries.

Anyhow, Donald pursued the French connection, writing at first crude notes which matured into elaborate letters addressed at people involved in the investigations, with French words and plenty of historical facts.

I am a skeptic by nature, but the complexity and coverage of the Battersea Poltergeist makes one wonder. There’s more to the story, some of it very bizarre, but if this is of interest I would recommend a very good podcast series produced by BB4: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0940193

Much documentation used in the podcast is based on the accounts of Harold Chibbert, a spiritualist who dedicated many years of his life researching the Battersea Poltergeist.