1931


8
YEARS

TALES OF ADVENTURE

Underwood attends a talk at the local gospel hall in Letchworth by Sir Wilfred Grenfell,

and is enchanted by tales of adventure

in far-off lands...

Wilfred Grenfell (1865-1940)

“I listened, fascinated as he related some of the superstitions and charms then common in Labrador…”

Newfoundland - a large Canadian island off the east coast of the North American mainland.

“He told a story of a haunted house where the occupants moved in the middle of the fishing season.”

“They said a spirit

had appropriated their dwelling

by night…”

“…so they moved by day,

when the spirit was asleep,

to another spot...”

“Even after all these years,

Grenfell’s phrases linger in the memory.”

“ ‘I have long ceased to deny things

 just because I cannot explain them...’ ”

“ ‘I have seen the accident called death many times,

but I never saw any reason to believe in the death of the personality…’

“I particularly recall one incident he described which involved his meeting a person…

“...whom he later found to be dead at the time he had met him...”

“It was little wonder that his experiences interested me,

for years later I learned that he had been a member

of the Ghost Club.”

Early members of the Ghost Club.

The Ghost Club was established in order to enquire into Spiritualism, a movement based on the belief that departed souls can interact with the living,

and to investigate the supposedly supernatural phenomena demonstrated by mediums and magicians

- for example by conducting an inspection of the ‘Spirit Cabinet’ used by the Davenport Brothers.

A Spirit Cabinet is a medium’s makeshift enclosure, 

 within which spiritual phenomena is purportedly made 

 'actual' or real.

The brothers claimed to be able to 'contact the dead' via their ‘cabinet’.

Underwood discusses the Ghost Club.