Adsagsona Paranormal Society Articles

Harry Price
1881-1948

By Chris M.

Born in London England, Harry Price loved magic from an early age. He became quite a skilled magician through the years. Later, he would become an Honorary Vice President of the London Magician’s Club.

At age 15, he and a friend stayed the night in a reputed haunted house. There, they took pictures of nothing, but this piqued Price’s interest in the paranormal.

After finishing school, Price worked at many different jobs, one of which was a journalist. He married a wealthy heiress, thus being able to afford not working, he could hunt ghosts and debunk frauds fulltime.

One of the biggest debunking’s Price brought about what that of William Hope. Hope was a photographer who supposedly could capture people’s dead relatives on film while taking their portraits. Price discovered Hope was using pre-exposed film plates in his camera, thus the dead relatives would ‘mysteriously’ appear with the customers.

A few years later, Harry was introduced to Stella Cranshaw, during whose seances, things always seemed to magically happen. He attended 13 of these in order to debunk the woman, but was unable to do so. During the seances, Price challenged the ‘medium’ to set off his teleknetoscope. This was his own invention of a telegraph key that would cause a light to come on when depressed. Put under a glass dome, it could only be operated by ‘pyshic power’. Ms. Cranshaw was able to operate it every time. It was during these sittings that Harry began to perform some of the experiments that are still used in investigations today. He took notes, and would take temperature readings in the room throughout the seances. His scientific measuring of the phenomena that occurred, not only established himself as a serious researcher, but earned Stella Cranshaw respect as a medium. All these things convinced Harry Price that paranormal events could be real.

Price set up his own laboratory in 1926, causing him to sever his ties with the Society for Psychical Research in Britain. The society did not care for his methods, especially his uncovering fraud, as they took every case presented to them for face value. Price did serve, however, as the foreign researcher for the American chapter of the SPR from 1925-1931. After his death, several members of the British SPR tried to discredit Price’s research. It is speculated this was due to resentment of Price’s self confidence, and expertise in investigation, for which he had had no formal training.

Mr. Price traveled the world researching paranormal phenomena, even finding a talking mongoose on the Isle of Mann. Price believed this was tied to poltergeist activity surrounding a 13 year old girl. (This was also investigated by Nandor Fodor, who did not accept the poltergeist explanation.) Because of all this, Harry Price was instrumental in bringing ghost research to the public, and is considered to be the first ‘celebrity’ ghost hunter.

The most famous case Price was involved in was the Haunting of Borley Rectory. This building was dubbed "The Most Haunted House in England" at the time. Price eventually wrote two books about it, which established his investigations as the standard for well run and detailed paranormal research. Borley Manor, in Suffolk, was built before the church, which was build sometime in 1066. The Rectory was build in 1863, on the alleged site of a Benedictine Monastery, which had been built in 1305. One of the monks from this monastery was reported to have tried and elope with a nun from down the road, but was caught and hanged. No one knew what became of the nun. The first reports of ghost sightings was in 1885, leading to a nursemaid to flee the house the next year, after hearing footsteps when no one was there. Many sightings of a nun had also been reported.

One of the ministers living in the rectory in the 1930's contacted a newspaper about the paranormal activity taking place, and when the story was published, the paper contacted Harry Price to come and investigate. Leasing the rectory for a year in 1937, Price put together a team of 48 researchers, and they all stayed in the rectory together to investigate the activity. Many things did indeed occur, such as ringing bells, rapping noises, and moving objects, and these all were noted in a specific scientific guideline that Price had established. During one seance in the rectory, a spirit told all present that the rectory would catch on fire, and the skeleton of a nun would be found in the ruins. Eleven months to the day after the seance, an oil lamp fell over in the hall, and the house burned to the ground. Five years later, Harry returned to the rectory, and found a jawbone while digging through the ruins in the cellar. It was believed to belong to the nun haunting the place.

Harry Price continued his investigations into the paranormal all the way up until his death in 1948. It has been speculated that J.K. Rowling based her character, Harry Potter, on Harry Price, but she has never substantiated these claims. Visitors to the Borley Rectory site state hauntings still continue there, although the rectory was never rebuilt.

Resources for this story and further reading on Harry Price:
HarryPrice.co.uk
GHRS-Ontario (Robin Bellamy)
Senate House Library, University of London
An Encyclopaedia of Psychic Science by Nandor Fodor (1934)

Return to the Articles Index.