Helen Duncan was a twentieth-century British materialization medium. During one of her séances in 1941 a sailor came through, explaining he had perished when the HMS Barham was sunk. The British Admiralty, worried about public morale, had been keeping the incident secret. Two years later, as an invasion of Germany approached, they wanted to prevent any further revelations. Duncan was arrested and tried under the Witchcraft Act of 1735. The Admiralty’s reaction to her knowledge demonstrated that they knew her statements were accurate.
Helen Duncan’s trial began on March 30, 1944. Twenty-two witnesses described the connections they had made during Duncan’s séances with loved ones in spirit. The witnesses told of seeing the materialized people close up, speaking about personal matters, touching, and even kissing them. They all swore under oath that they had an encounter with their loved ones.
Below is the transcript of the testimony of one witness named Helaine Fry. She testified at the Helen Duncan trial that she witnessed materializations of her sister, nephew, uncle, father-in-law, mother-in-law, and son. A transcript of her testimony follows.[i] You can listen to a voiceover of the transcript by clicking on the audio controls.
Witness: Helaine Fry:
Defense attorney: Have you yourself been fortunate enough to have any personal identifications?
Helaine Fry: Yes, quite a lot.
Defense attorney: Who were they?
Helaine Fry: My sister, my nephew, my uncle, my father-in-law, my mother-in-law and my son.
Defense attorney: Would you be good enough to tell us first of all about your son? How do you know that he was your son, Mrs. Fry?
Helaine Fry: It is very difficult to explain. My son was never born in the flesh. Albert said it was my son, but he has never had completely his physical body on earth. He said he would try to bring him to me. He tried, and my son came. He came and opened his arms to me.
Defense attorney: Anyone else?
Helaine Fry: My people in-law, my father and mother-in-law.
Defense attorney: Did you know them fairly well?
Helaine Fry: I knew them extremely well.
Defense attorney: You say he came. Who are you speaking about?
Helaine Fry: My father-in-law.
Defense attorney: How do you know it was your father-in-law?
Helaine Fry: He was so much like himself, and looking rather frail, like he was in the last two years in his life; and all the things he said.
Defense attorney: What about his voice?
Helaine Fry: Exactly like his voice, and like himself.
Defense attorney: What was the name of your father-in-law?
Helaine Fry: Edward Alexander Fry.
Defense attorney: Do you mean you think it was he?
Helaine Fry: I have not the least doubt.
Defense attorney: How close to you did he come?
Helaine Fry: I was very close to the curtain, but he recognized his son at the end of the room and all my children, and he made a remark he would have made as when he was in the flesh, about the children: “How much they have grown!” He had the habit of measuring their heights every time he saw them, and keeping a record of it.
Defense attorney: Anyone else?
Helaine Fry: My nephew, who was killed in the Maginot Line.
Defense attorney: What was his name?
Helaine Fry: John Valet.
Defense attorney: How do you know it was your nephew?
Helaine Fry: By his size, his stature, his personality. He was a very tall boy. He showed his dark hair.
Defense attorney: Have you any doubt of any kind it was John Valet?
Helaine Fry: Not the least doubt.
Defense attorney: Did he speak to you?
Helaine Fry: No.
Defense attorney: Did any of these people speak to you?
Helaine Fry: Yes, a French girl who came once.
Defense attorney: Was she a girl you knew?
Helaine Fry: I could not recognize her, because Albert said she was a schoolfriend. I could not recognize my schoolfriend, but she talked French perfectly.
Defense attorney: Do you know Mrs. Duncan fairly well?
Helaine Fry: Yes.
Defense attorney: As far as you know, does Mrs. Duncan speak French?
Helaine Fry: I do not think so.
Defense attorney: Any other case of identification of particular interest to you, Mrs. Fry?
Helaine Fry: I have heard Swedish being spoken to a Swedish man, at the Spiritualists’ International Congress at Glasgow, at which I was an interpreter. I do not understand Swedish. The man spoken to was a delegate, a Swedish doctor. He told me he conversed with his mother.
Prosecuting attorney: Did you check up the Swedish?
Helaine Fry: I do not understand Swedish.
Defense attorney: Any other case of somebody you knew when they were here? You have told us a good many.
Helaine Fry: Yes.
Prosecuting attorney: Did you see any animals at any time?
Helaine Fry: Yes.
Prosecuting attorney: What kind?
Helaine Fry: Dogs and birds.
Prosecuting attorney: What sort of birds? Probably a bird like a little canary. Was it yellow?
Helaine Fry: No.
Prosecuting attorney: White?
Helaine Fry: All white.
Prosecuting attorney: Any other kind of birds?
Helaine Fry: No.
Prosecuting attorney: Did the canary sing?
Helaine Fry: Yes.
Prosecuting attorney: Whistle?
Helaine Fry: Whistle?
Prosecuting attorney: Did it whistle?
Helaine Fry: Yes.
Prosecuting attorney: Did it do that?
Helaine Fry: Yes.
Prosecuting attorney: Do you believe animals have got souls?
Helaine Fry: Yes.
Prosecuting attorney: You do?
Helaine Fry: Yes, they may belong to a certain soul group.
Prosecuting attorney Do you believe in Christian Science?
Helaine Fry: I do not know Christian
Prosecuting attorney: One thing is certain, you believe in Mrs. Duncan absolutely?
Helaine Fry: Yes,
Judge: How did you come to contact her?
Helaine Fry: I heard of Mrs. Duncan when I was at the Congress in Glasgow in 1937.
Prosecuting attorney: You engaged her to come to London, did you?
Helaine Fry: No, it was long afterwards. I met her many times besides at my place, before.
Prosecuting attorney: Do you live in Glasgow?
Helaine Fry: No.
Prosecuting attorney: You live in London now?
Helaine Fry: I live in London.
Prosecuting attorney: Were these seances held in London?
Helaine Fry: Yes.
Prosecuting attorney: At your house?
Helaine Fry: Except one in Glasgow.
Prosecuting attorney: In your house?
Helaine Fry: Some in my house, some elsewhere.
Prosecuting attorney: Other people’s houses?
Helaine Fry: Yes.
Prosecuting attorney: Did you get Mrs. Duncan to come to London, then?
Helaine Fry: Not specially for me.
Prosecuting attorney: Was she doing a round of visiting?
Helaine Fry: Yes.
Prosecuting attorney: You engaged her?
Helaine Fry: Yes.
Prosecuting attorney: Did you invite friends to come?
Helaine Fry: Yes.
Prosecuting attorney: And you charged the friends?
Helaine Fry: Not all; some of them, and some of them came as friends, and paid no fee whatsoever.
Prosecuting attorney: Have you a family alive?
Helaine Fry: I have three daughters alive and a son in spirit.
Prosecuting attorney: Is your husband alive?
Helaine Fry: Yes, my husband is alive.
Prosecuting attorney: When was this son of yours stillborn, or not born in the flesh? How long ago?
Helaine Fry: He would have been twenty-four now if he had lived.
Prosecuting attorney: When you say he was never born in the flesh, you mean he was stillborn or a miscarriage?
Helaine Fry: Yes.
Prosecuting attorney: An early one or a late one?
Helaine Fry: Five months.
Prosecuting attorney: When you saw your son, the spirit materialization, was he being carried by anybody?
Helaine Fry: No, he was not.
Prosecuting attorney: What form did he take, a grown form?
Helaine Fry: He was like all the others, because he is grown-up now, but he was my son, I know.
Prosecuting attorney: Because Albert said so?
Helaine Fry: I could feel it. I talked to him.
Prosecuting attorney: He was grown-up, you mean, to the extent to which a man of twenty would be grown?
Helaine Fry: Yes, absolutely. He is fully alive now.[ii]
[i] C. E. Bechhofer Roberts, ed., “Full Text of ‘The trial of Mrs. Duncan.’” The Old Bailey Trial Series (London: Jarrolds Publishers, 1945): 298-300 [ii] C. E. Bechhofer Roberts, ed., “Full Text of ‘The trial of Mrs. Duncan.’” The Old Bailey Trial Series (London: Jarrolds Publishers, 1945): 298-300 
