The Last Witch

The history they did not teach you in school

The Last Witch

Helen Duncan, the last witch to be condemned under English law, was a fake psychic who claimed to be able to send messages from the dead and produce ‘ectoplasm’, which was primarily cheesecloth. She heard of the sinking of the HMS Barham in 1941, which claimed the lives of 861 people, and told a public seance that the ghost of a drowned sailor had appeared to her. She was prosecuted with seven crimes under the Witchcraft Act of 1735, along with the Portsmouth Psychic Centre’s owners and her agent. She spent nine months in prison and continued to hold seances after her release. Her trial, described as ‘total tomfoolery’ by Winston Churchill, was the last witchcraft trial in England, and the witchcraft legislation was repealed in 1944.