On their official website the Ghost Club says:
"The Ghost Club is the oldest organisation in the world associated with psychical research.
It was founded in 1862 but has its roots in Cambridge University where, in 1855, fellows at Trinity College began to discuss ghosts and psychic phenomena.
Past members include Charles Dickens, Siegfried Sassoon, Harry Price, Donald Campbell, Peter Cushing, Peter Underwood, Maurice Grosse, Sir Shane Leslie and Eric Maple.
Charles John Huffam Dickens (
7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic.
He created some of the world's most well-known fictional characters and
is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period.
During his life, his works enjoyed unprecedented popularity, and by the twentieth century he was widely seen as a literary genius by critics and scholars.
Siegfried Loraine Sassoon, CBE, MC (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English poet, writer, and soldier.
Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches, and satirized the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's view, were responsible for a jingoism-fuelled war.
Donald Malcolm Campbell CBE (23 March 1921 – 4 January 1967) was a British speed record breaker who broke eight absolute world speed records on water and on land in the 1950s and 1960s.
He remains the only person to set both world land and water speed records in the same year (1964). Campbell was intensely superstitious, hating the colour green, the number thirteen, and believing nothing good ever happened on a Friday.
He apparently also had some interest in the paranormal, which he nurtured as a member of the Ghost Club. He was probably to joker of this bunch!
Peter Wilton Cushing, OBE (26 May 1913 – 11 August 1994) was an English actor known for his many appearances in Hammer Films, in which he played the sinister scientist Baron Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes and the vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing, among many other roles.
He appeared frequently opposite Christopher Lee, and occasionally Vincent Price. A familiar face on both sides of the Atlantic, Cushing's best-known roles outside the Hammer productions include Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars (1977) and Dr. Who in Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) and Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. (1966), films based on the Doctor Who television series.
Peter Underwood was Born at Letchworth Garden City in Hertfordshire on 16th May 1923 and privately educated. He took part in the first 'official' investigation into a haunted house more than 50 years ago, in the company of the then Research Officer of the Society for Psychical Research. He is a prolific author on books covering ghosts by region of the United Kingdom. He is a leading expert on Borley Rectory.
Maurice Grosse (6 March 1919 in London, England – 14 October 2006 in London, England) was a British paranormal investigator famous for his involvement in the Enfield Poltergeist case.
Sir John Randolph Leslie, 3rd Baronet, generally known as Shane Leslie (24 September 1885 – 14 August 1971), was an Irish-born diplomat and writer.
He was a first cousin of Sir Winston Churchill, the British war time Prime Minister.
Eric Maple (1916 – 1994) was an English folklorist and author known for his studies of witchcraft and folk magic in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Essex, in particular his first-hand research into the folklore surrounding the cunning men James Murrell and George Pickingill.
Born in Essex to a family of Kentish ancestry, his mother was a Spiritualist medium. Having little formal education, he has been described as a "self-made man".
In the early 1950s, he discovered the scholarly field of folklorists, and decided to use a folkloric methodology to explore the folk stories of his home county.
The club had its roots in Cambridge when in 1855 fellows at Trinity College began to discuss ghosts and psychic phenomena.
It was then formally launched in London in 1862and seemed to attract some pretty impressive members even in the midst of much ridicule from scholarly sectors of the community.
The group undertook practical investigations of spiritualist phenomena, which was then much in vogue and they would meet and discuss ghostly subjects.
The Ghost Club seems to have dissolved in the 1870s following the death of Dickens but it was relaunched in 1882 simultaneously with the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) with whom there was an initial overlap of members.
The Ghost Club was revived on All Saints Day 1882 by A.A.Watts and a famous contemporary medium, the Reverend Stainton Moses.
Whilst the SPR was a body devoted to scientific study the Club remained a selective and secretive organisation
Stainton Moses resigned from the vice presidency of the SPR in 1886 and thereafter devoted himself to the Club which met monthly, with attendance being considered obligatory except for the most pressing reasons.
Membership was small - 82 members over 54 years - but during this period the Club attracted some of the most original - and controversial minds in psychical research, serving almost as a place of refuge for those who were unable to pursue activities elsewhere. These included Sir William Crookes who attracted scandal after investigation into Florence Cook, a medium.
I guess the ladies didnt get a look in to this bunch - as ladies were meant to stay at home and do 'lady like' things and not think much beyond what they should prepare their husband for dinner that night!
Good thing that times have changed.
"The Ghost Club is the oldest organisation in the world associated with psychical research.
It was founded in 1862 but has its roots in Cambridge University where, in 1855, fellows at Trinity College began to discuss ghosts and psychic phenomena.
Past members include Charles Dickens, Siegfried Sassoon, Harry Price, Donald Campbell, Peter Cushing, Peter Underwood, Maurice Grosse, Sir Shane Leslie and Eric Maple.
That's some pretty impressive names on that list -
During his life, his works enjoyed unprecedented popularity, and by the twentieth century he was widely seen as a literary genius by critics and scholars.
Siegfried Loraine Sassoon, CBE, MC (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English poet, writer, and soldier.
Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches, and satirized the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's view, were responsible for a jingoism-fuelled war.
Donald Malcolm Campbell CBE (23 March 1921 – 4 January 1967) was a British speed record breaker who broke eight absolute world speed records on water and on land in the 1950s and 1960s.
He remains the only person to set both world land and water speed records in the same year (1964). Campbell was intensely superstitious, hating the colour green, the number thirteen, and believing nothing good ever happened on a Friday.
He apparently also had some interest in the paranormal, which he nurtured as a member of the Ghost Club. He was probably to joker of this bunch!
Peter Wilton Cushing, OBE (26 May 1913 – 11 August 1994) was an English actor known for his many appearances in Hammer Films, in which he played the sinister scientist Baron Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes and the vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing, among many other roles.
He appeared frequently opposite Christopher Lee, and occasionally Vincent Price. A familiar face on both sides of the Atlantic, Cushing's best-known roles outside the Hammer productions include Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars (1977) and Dr. Who in Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) and Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. (1966), films based on the Doctor Who television series.
Peter Underwood was Born at Letchworth Garden City in Hertfordshire on 16th May 1923 and privately educated. He took part in the first 'official' investigation into a haunted house more than 50 years ago, in the company of the then Research Officer of the Society for Psychical Research. He is a prolific author on books covering ghosts by region of the United Kingdom. He is a leading expert on Borley Rectory.
Maurice Grosse (6 March 1919 in London, England – 14 October 2006 in London, England) was a British paranormal investigator famous for his involvement in the Enfield Poltergeist case.
Sir John Randolph Leslie, 3rd Baronet, generally known as Shane Leslie (24 September 1885 – 14 August 1971), was an Irish-born diplomat and writer.
He was a first cousin of Sir Winston Churchill, the British war time Prime Minister.
Eric Maple (1916 – 1994) was an English folklorist and author known for his studies of witchcraft and folk magic in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Essex, in particular his first-hand research into the folklore surrounding the cunning men James Murrell and George Pickingill.
Born in Essex to a family of Kentish ancestry, his mother was a Spiritualist medium. Having little formal education, he has been described as a "self-made man".
In the early 1950s, he discovered the scholarly field of folklorists, and decided to use a folkloric methodology to explore the folk stories of his home county.
The club had its roots in Cambridge when in 1855 fellows at Trinity College began to discuss ghosts and psychic phenomena.
It was then formally launched in London in 1862and seemed to attract some pretty impressive members even in the midst of much ridicule from scholarly sectors of the community.
The group undertook practical investigations of spiritualist phenomena, which was then much in vogue and they would meet and discuss ghostly subjects.
The Ghost Club seems to have dissolved in the 1870s following the death of Dickens but it was relaunched in 1882 simultaneously with the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) with whom there was an initial overlap of members.
The Ghost Club was revived on All Saints Day 1882 by A.A.Watts and a famous contemporary medium, the Reverend Stainton Moses.
Whilst the SPR was a body devoted to scientific study the Club remained a selective and secretive organisation
Stainton Moses resigned from the vice presidency of the SPR in 1886 and thereafter devoted himself to the Club which met monthly, with attendance being considered obligatory except for the most pressing reasons.
Membership was small - 82 members over 54 years - but during this period the Club attracted some of the most original - and controversial minds in psychical research, serving almost as a place of refuge for those who were unable to pursue activities elsewhere. These included Sir William Crookes who attracted scandal after investigation into Florence Cook, a medium.
I guess the ladies didnt get a look in to this bunch - as ladies were meant to stay at home and do 'lady like' things and not think much beyond what they should prepare their husband for dinner that night!
Good thing that times have changed.
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