Tribute to Britain's last 'witch'

SHE was the last person in Britain to be tried as a witch - in a 1944 case Winston Churchill called "obsolete tomfoolery".

Her ability to inform relatives about loved ones who had died abroad during the Second World War led to her family being demonised. Even 54 years later, then-Home Secretary Jack Straw refused to grant her a posthumous pardon.

But now Helen Duncan is to receive a special mention in a ceremony to remember 81 people from Prestonpans who were killed during the witchcraft trials of the 16th and 17th century.

Ms Duncan, who lived in Niddrie at the time but travelled the country putting on seances for relatives, was convicted in 1944 under the 1735 Witchcraft Act for "pretending to raise the spirits of the dead". She was sentenced to nine months in Holloway prison.

Her granddaughter, Mary Martin, 72, from Craigmillar, who will lead tomorrow's ceremony at the Prestoungrange Gothenburg pub in Prestonpans High Street, said: "I still remember it. My brother and I were at school at the time and it was awful, we got called names like demon child.

"It's still upsetting thinking about it. The whole family were devastated. When she came home she seemed to have lost all her will to live, she was never the same again. I am so proud of her - she did nothing wrong. I loved that lady and I still miss her after all these years."

She said her grandmother should never have been tried under the ancient law.

"She was arrested and tried for witchcraft, but she wasn't a witch. It was farcical.

"She was a spiritualist, and at the time they were getting tried for vagrancy. If that had happened she would have got a fine."

The ceremony - the only one of its kind in the UK - is now in its third year. It was started following the pardoning of the Prestonpans witches in 2004 by the Baron of Prestoungrange.

Although Ms Duncan lived in Niddrie, she could not be pardoned by the Baron, as she was tried in Portsmouth.

However, her case is so well known she is being included as a special guest to mark the 50th anniversary.

Kristine Cunningham, from Prestoungrange Arts Festival, which is organising the event, said: "It will be a sombre occasion. We want to focus on the injustice so people know what happened to her."

Campaigners are trying to clear her name through the European Courts. Her story was made into a Channel Four drama documentary in 1999 and at one stage there was talk of a Hollywood film.

It was in Portsmouth in 1941 that she claimed to have been contacted by a sailor from the HMS Barham, who said the ship had been torpedoed.

The Government was yet to reveal the details for fear it would affect morale.

The War Office feared Ms Duncan could also see and reveal the secret site chosen for the imminent D-Day landing, and the top-secret Enigma operation to break German codes.

So it was decided to try her under the ancient law, which had not been tried for more than 200 years. Ms Duncan had many famous clients, including Winston Churchill.

As prime minister, he repealed the Witchcraft Act in 1951, recognising spiritualism as a religion. Despite this, a seance Ms Duncan held in Nottingham in 1956 was still raided by police.

She was in a trance at the time and was grabbed by police officers. It was this which supporters claimed killed her.

Mrs Martin said the interference of the trance when her grandmother was grabbed caused ectoplasm - a whitish, pliable substance said to take the shape of spirits and enable the dead to communicate - to recoil back into the body causing severe burns. She added: "When we saw her body it was covered in burns"

Mrs Martin said she would continue to fight on in the hope of clearing her grandmother's name.

Factfile

Helen Duncan was born in Callender on November 26, 1897. She married a cabinetmaker, who was disabled after suffering an injury in the First World War.

The couple moved to Dundee then Edinburgh. Mrs Duncan fell pregnant 12 times but only six children survived.

Her first brush with the law was in 1933, when she was found guilty at an Edinburgh court of practising as a false medium.

During the Second World War Helen travelled the country carrying out seances.

In 1941, she alarmed the authorities when she told a seance in Portsmouth about attacks on the British warships Hood and Barham before their losses had been made public.

Three years later one of her seances was raided by the police and Navy.

She was charged with conspiracy, which was a hanging offence, but it was later dropped to contravening the Witchcraft Act of 1735 by pretending to raise the spirits of the dead.

A bid by her lawyers to get Mrs Duncan to perform a seance in court was rejected.

A total of 44 witnesses, including a justice of the peace and journalists, spoke in her defence, but she was still found guilty and sentenced to nine months at Holloway.

During her time in jail, Mrs Duncan received many visitors, including Winston Churchill. She was released on September 22, 1944.

Mrs Duncan died in 1956 after allegedly being assaulted by two police officers during a seance and was cremated at Warriston Crematorium.