Real Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theories Book III

The Cheltenham Ghost

The Cheltenham Ghost was anapparition said to haunt a house in Cheltenham in western England.The building was the home of the Despard family whose daughter Rosinasaw the ghost of a veiled woman on several occasions in the 1880s.

The Society for Psychical Research inLondon is the oldest institute of its kind in the world. Its membersare dedicated to research paranormal phenomena. To this end, theSociety has sent one of its founders, Frederic Myers, to investigatethe case. He produced perhaps one of the first pseudo-scientificreports on a Ghost apparition investigation in history.

Summary

In April 1882, Captain Despard with hisinvalid wife and six children moved into a house known as GardenReach in Cheltenham, England. The house had been empty for manyyears, and there were reports of its being haunted.

It was in June that Rose, the Captain'sdaughter, saw the ghost for the first time:

"The figure was that of a talllady, dressed in black of a soft woollen material, judging from theslight sound in moving. The face was hidden in a handkerchief held inthe right hand (...)on further occasions, when I was able to observeher more closely, I saw the upper part of the left side of theforehead, and a little of the hair above. Her left hand was nearlyhidden by her sleeve and a fold of her dress. As she held it down aportion of a widow's cuff was visible on both wrists, so that thewhole impression was that of a lady in widow's weeds".

The ghost was seen on a number ofoccasions between 1882 and 1886 by several people, some of whom alsoclaimed to hear the woman's footsteps. All 17 people who saw it sayit was so lifelike that at first, they mistook it for a livingperson. The Society for Psychical Research was asked to investigate.

The Society for Psychical ResearchInvestigation

Frederic Myers researched the historyof the house and found that Garden Reach was built in 1860 andoccupied by a husband and wife. After his wife's death, the husbandmarried again. The couple was a heavy drinker and did not have a goodrelationship. The second wife left the house shortly before thehusband died, in 1876 to die shortly afterward in 1878. By obtainingpictures of both women, Frederic Myers was able to allow Rose to"identify" the ghost as the first wife of the previousowner .

Seventeen people claim to have seen theGhost and it was assumed that it was no longer seen after 1899.Later, after the house was turned into a boarding school for boys,there were stories of a lady being encountered in the corridors, inthe stairs and in the gardens.

Andrew MacKenzie, an occult and crimewriter who is a member of the Society for Psychical Research, wrote abook, Hauntings and Apparitions: An Investigation of the Evidence, inwhich he claims that three people have seen figures around GardenReach between 1958 and 1961.