Part 1

Ghosts in the Great War and True Tales of Haunted Houses

Thrilling Experiences of “Daily News” Readers

Edited by S. Louis Giraud

LONDON FLEETGATE PUBLICATIONS (“Daily News” Books Dept.), Lombard Lane, Bouverie Street, E.C.4.

The full list of books in this series is as follows:

No. 1. TRUE GHOST STORIES. Told by Daily News Readers.

No. 2. WARNINGS FROM BEYOND. Signs, Visions and Premonitions told by readers of the Daily News, con- taining: Strange Warnings and Premonitions. Inexplicable Experiences. Remarkable Stories of Ghosts of the Living. Visions of those who have Passed Over. Promised Signs from the Dead. Extraordinary Experiences related by Nurses. Strange Visions of Animals. “Tall” Stories. Some Stories with a Sequel.

No. 3. UNCANNY STORIES. Weird happenings to Daily News readers. Some Ghostly things explained.

No. 4. GHOSTS IN THE GREAT WAR AND TRUE TALES OF HAUNTED HOUSES. Thrilling Experiences of Daily News readers. ——————

On sale everywhere, or can be procured direct from the publishers :——FLEETGATE PUBLICATIONS (Daily News Books Dept.), Lombard Lane, Bouverie Street, London, E.C. 4.

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INTRODUCTION

The subject of Ghosts and Ghostly happenings has always aroused a vast amount of interest, much fear, some amusement and varying degrees of ridicule, but in recent years the names of so many prominent and influential people have been directly associated with it and used in support of the existence of spiritual intercourse that it has become worthy of a careful examination. This fact, and the reported reappearance of the “brown lady” of Raynham Hall, the home of the Marquis Townshend, in the latter part of last year, led the Editor of the Home Magazine Page of the Daily News, in co-operation with the Publishers of this book to invite readers to give their experiences in this matter. In extending this invitation the Daily News, in its issue of November 6th, 1926, stated:

“A vast number of people do believe in ghosts—many on the most inadequate evidence. But up and down the country, in lonely farms, in quiet suburban roads, in London flats—in fact, wherever the living dwell and the dead have dwelt, there are people who fully believe that they have seen mysterious apparitions, sometimes uncanny, sometimes not even uncanny, strange noises unaccountable by any human agency known to the witness. And these agencies they believe to be ghosts.

"Let us find out what these occurrences amount to. We ask our readers, in the interests of sober truth, to tell us of the stories which are authentically within their own knowledge—not the feverish traditional stories of the countryside, but the sights and sounds which they themselves have seen and heard, or which their friends and neighbours have seen and heard, and which have convinced them that ghosts really exist.

“Many will hesitate because the story they have to tell, though inexplicable, seems so futile; but futility is often characteristic of the real living contemporary ghost story as distinguished from the blood-curdling romance handed down from the past, with dripping hands and clanking chains."

As a small recognition of the service rendered by the writers of these experiences, a daily prize was given by the Daily News for the first ghost story published each day during the appearance of the correspondence. It was also announced that it was felt that this important body of evidence on a subject of continual controversy should not be lost, and, therefore, the Publishers of this book undertook to gather into book form the best of the stories, and to equally divide a further sum of £20 in prizes to the authors of the ten best stories used in this way.

It was then thought that one book would be adequate for the presentation of these selected stories, but the response to the Daily News invitation was so enormous, that no less than four books of most extraordinary stories are now completed and published, and the awards have been increased to £40.

The Editor of these books has read through every story received—some three thousand in all—and endeavoured to classify them and then group the various phases of the subject under appropriate titles. It has been a tremendous undertaking, and the work has occupied several months. Every selected story has been reproduced without alteration of fact, and in almost every case the actual wording of the stories has been adhered to.

The task of scrutinising this vast amount of matter could be done by only one person where the merits of each story were to be judged for the purpose of awarding prizes. And that single-handed task had its compensations as well as its trials, because it yielded a comprehensive survey that could not have been accomplished by collaboration.

The outstanding feature of this examination was the total absence of the really horrible stories of Ghosts that have been served out to the public from time to time. There was no lack of extraordinary incidents, as the stories which we now reproduce will show; and generally there was a wholesome respect for the nature of the great subject under consideration. Most of the stories prove honesty of purpose on the part of the narrators, and the fact that the writers of some of the most striking occurrences represent every class, from the poor and unlettered, to those well-placed in the world, is an indication that the subject of Ghosts or Spirits has an amazing interest for the public. Reverend Gentlemen, Magistrates, Professional Men, Nurses, all figure in the list of those whose stories we reproduce, and the nature of the great majority of the letters received indicates a desire for serious inquiry rather than a mere relation of something to excite or frighten.

All those stories which showed abnormal temperament—and there were many of those—have been carefully excluded in the preparation of these books, but full advantage has been taken of the stories which were sent to explain away strange happenings and to relieve the ghostly atmosphere with healthy humour.

We make no claim to attempt to answer the question “Do Ghosts exist? ”; we simply present in the most careful manner the best incidents out of the many sent to us in support of the Ayes and Nos, and to the many who have experienced inexplicable manifestations and await an explanation, we can only say that unless such can be gleaned from the sequels to supposed Ghostly happenings with which this collection of stories is interspersed, we are afraid this great subject has not yet been sufficiently investigated to yield them complete satisfaction.

One thing this vast amount of correspondence has proved is, that while the least temperamental of us may scoff at the idea of Ghosts, and the humorously inclined may find it a happy sporting ground for the exercise of wit, there is something which surrounds the lives of a large number of apparently sane and decent-living people, that cannot be analysed as we are used to analysing things in this modern age. And this something is sufficiently diversified to arouse in those who are not immune from it feelings varying in degrees between the two extremes of uncontrollable dread and deep reverence. To have accomplished this alone would have been a complete justification for the preparation and publication of these books, but we hope something further will be accomplished, namely, to prove the futility, if not the danger, of putting on the market literature on this subject of such an extravagant nature that it not only injures in its undue infliction of terror those who read it, but detrimentally affects the merits of a subject which, to those who are interested in it, has as many claims to investigation as Wireless or any other subject of equally uncanny surprises and possibilities.

Having thus dealt with the main aspects of this correspondence, there are two matters which must not be overlooked: one is a protest that was included in the correspondence—a protest against the publication of these Ghost stories, and the other the very emphatic “No” which is given by several writers to the question “Do you believe in Ghosts?”

Below we give in full the protest referred to, and also the principal “Nos.” The former, we believe, is sufficiently answered in the foregoing remarks, and the latter constitute another interesting phase of this very interesting subject.

For the information of those who may desire to secure the whole of the four books in this series or any particular one dealing with a special phase of the subject, a full description is given on the back of the title page of this book.

The fact that the names and addresses of the writers of these stories have been withheld, and also names of people and places mentioned in the stories, must not be regarded as a reflection upon the truth of the story or the honesty of the writer; it is essential in the best interests of everybody.