| Main Performers | Estelle Roberts [spirit guide 'Red Cloud'],
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (in spirit),
Emily Wilding Davison (in spirit),
Rev. C Drayton Thomas,
Mrs St Clair Stobart,
Rev. George Vale Owen,
H Ernest Hunt,
Ernest Oaten,
Hannen Swaffer - speakers,
Gladys Ripley - vocal,
F Alford Armstrong - organ |
| Set List | 'Jubilate', Lizzie Doten,
Invocation (Rev. C Drayton Thomas),
Two Minutes Silence,
The Lord's Prayer,
'Reading' (Mrs St Clair Stobart),
'Abide With Me!' (Gladys Ripley),
Short Addresses (Rev. George Vale Owen, H Ernest Hunt, Rev. C Drayton Thomas),
'For Light', John Henry Newman,
Short addresses (Ernest Oaten, Hannen Swaffer),
Organ Voluntary and Collection (F Alford Armstrong)
'Open My Eyes', Clara H Scott,
Spirit Descriptions and Messages (Estelle Roberts),
'God Be With You Till We Meet Again!', Jeremiah Eames Rankin,
Benediction |
| Performance Notes | Seance with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - A Spiritualist Memorial Service in honour of Sir Arthur will be held tomorrow (Sunday) evening , July 13 at 7pm. Doors open at 6.15. The platform will be occupied by well-known men and women. Mrs Estelle Roberts will give a demonstration of clairvoyance to prove survival. All are invited to attend. Seats free. A few reserved seats at 2s 6d may be obtained from the Promoting Societies, Marylebone Spiritualist Association, 42 Russell-square, WC1: the Spiritualist Community, Grotrian Hall, Wigmore-street, W2"
(The Times, 12 July 1930)
"'MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR SIR A CONAN DOYLE - A memorial service for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was held last night at the Albert Hall. On the platform were Lady Conan Doyle, with a vacant chair on her right labelled 'Sir Arthur Conan Doyle', Mr Dennis Doyle, Mr Adrian Doyle, Miss Mary Doyle, and Mrs Estelle Roberts. Mr George Craze presided. A telegram from Sir Oliver Lodge was read, and tributes to Sir Arthur were paid in short addresses by the Rev G Vale Own, the Rev C Drayton Thomas, Mr H E Hunt, and Mr Ernest Oaten."
(The Times, 14 July 1930)
"The demise of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle last fortnight provided immediate opportunity to test his and many another man's belief in a spirit-life after Death. Sir Arthur's family cheerfully buried him last week in the trim kitchen garden close to the Sussex hut where he wrote both his fiction and his documents on Spiritualism. So voluminous were those documents, so widely did he distribute them that Spiritualists called him their "St. Paul."
Although he did not promise to send any message after his passing, his family and all other Spiritualists expected one. It would convince sceptics, mockers. Said Lady Doyle last week: "Although I have not spoken to Arthur since he passed, I am certain that in his own time and his own way he will send a message to us. We are not trying to communicate with him, because in the Beyond [he called it Summerland] you cannot call them as you would on a telephone. I am sure he will make contact with us first."
Professional mediumsin the Bronx, N.Y., in Vancouver, B.C., in Neuilly, Paris suburbat once began reporting "messages." The Doyle family declared them all spurious. Said Son Adrian Doyle: "There is no question that my father will often speak to us just as he did before he passed over. We will always know when he is speaking but one has to be careful because there are practical jokers on the other side, as there are here. It is quite possible that these jokers may attempt to impersonate him. But there are tests which my mother knows, such as little mannerisms of speech which cannot be impersonated and which will tell us it is my father, himself, who is speaking."
Lady Doyle sent a formal notice to all British newspapers: "Lady Conan Doyle informs news editors that any message purporting to have come from her late husband is unauthenticated and no such message can be accepted. As such unless it receives her personal endorsement."
Sunday of last week the proof convincing to Spiritualists of an After Life developed. Ten thousand people pushed into huge Albert Hall, London. On the stage was a chair placarded with Sir Arthur's name. It was the chair he occupied corporeally when he had directed Spiritualist demonstrations there. Beside his chair sat Lady Doyle, near her his two sons and two daughters.
The ceremony began by the Spiritualists extolling their late St. Paul. Sir Oliver Lodge, 79, great scientist, great Spiritualist, could not attend, but sent a message: "Our great-hearted champion will still be continuing his campaign on the Other Side with added wisdom and knowledge. Sursum corda [lift up your hearts]."
The speakers were cheerful, occasionally whimsical. One speaker made the audience laugh when he actively illustrated Sir Arthur's love of cricket. Another speaker, Ernest Oaten, made the audience weep by suddenly looking upward, raising his hand, and loudly crying: "We thank you! God bless you, Doyle!''
Then came the Spiritualist evidence. A Mrs. Estelle Roberts, clairvoyant, took the stage. She declared five spirits were "pushing" her. She cried out their messages. Persons in the audience confirmed their validity. Suddenly Mrs. Roberts looked at Sir Arthur's empty chair, cried: "He is here."
Lady Doyle stood up. The clairvoyant's eyes moved as though accompanying a person who was approaching her. "He is wearing evening clothes," she murmured. She inclined her head to listen. A silent moment. Her head jerked up. She stared at Lady Doyle, shivered, ran to the widow, whispered.
Persons nearby could hear: "Sir Arthur told me that one of you went into the hut [on the Doyle estate] this morning. Is that correct?" Lady Doyle, faltering: "Why, yes." She beamed. Her eyes opened widely.
At this point some intrepid mockers rose in the hall, noisily stamped towards exits. The great organ of the hall pealed, drowned out the disturbance. The clairvoyant to Lady Doyle: "The message is this. Tell Mary [eldest daughter]. . . ." Eavesdroppers could hear no more.
Adrian Doyle, later: "The spirit message answers all the tests which my father and mother had agreed upon before his passing. I can only agree with mother that the message is of so intimate a character it cannot be made public even to our closest friends."
Lady Doyle, later: "I am perfectly convinced that the message is from my husband. I am as sure of the fact that he has been here with us as I am sure that I am speaking to you. It is a happy message, one that is cheering and encouraging. It's precious and sacred."
(Time Magazine, 21 July 1930)
"'Message' from Sir Conan Doyle
Spiritualist Claim at Memorial Service - 'He is Here'
The most remarkable memorial service London has known ended late tonight with a memorable scene. Spiritualists to the number of at least 10,000 packed the Albert Hall to do honour to their dead champion and leader Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. All eyes were upon Lady Conan Doyle and a vacant chair upon her right. She was the central figure of a family group. The vacant chair bore a slip of paper with the word 'Sir Arthur Conan Doyle' written upon it. It was between her and her elder son, Mr Dennis Doyle. Her younger son, Mr Adrian Malcolm Doyle was also there.
Mrs Estelle Roberts, the medium, took the rostrum. In the midst of her flow of talk she turned to Lady Doyle and her sons with a smile and the words 'He's here.' When she left the rostrum she almost ran to the widow saying 'I have a message for you.' Mrs Roberts leaned over Lady Doyle's chair for a few minutes, talking with the utmost animation.
HAPPY MESSAGE
After the meeting, Mrs Roberts said 'Yes, I received a message from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself and I give it to the family. It was a message to Lady Conan Doyle and her family, especially to one of them. I shall not divulge any more. It was a perfectly happy message.' 'I saw him first,' she said 'during the two minutes silence. Then when I was giving my messages, I saw him again. He walked across the platform and sat in the chair. There was no doubt at all. I saw him quite plainly. He was sitting in the chair while I was giving the messages, and then came across and gave me his own message. Then he came and stood at my back while I was doing the rest of my work. His message came in his own clear voice and I understood it perfectly.'
Lady Doyle said 'I am perfectly convinced that the message is from my husband. I am as sure of that, and of the fact he has been here with us, as I am sure that I am speaking to you. It is a happy message; one that is cheering and encouraging.'
Quite early, the chairman (Mr George Craze) read a letter from Lady Doyle emphasising that the impression that her husband's materialised form would appear in the chair was an erroneous one. 'At every meeting all over the world,' said Lady Doyle, 'I have sat at my beloved husband's side and at this great meeting, where people have come with respect and loving thoughts to do him honour, his chair is placed, as I know that in psychic presence he will be next to me, although our earthly eyes cannot perceive beyond the earth - obvious. Only those with the God-given extra sight called clairvoyance will be able to see the dear form in our midst.'
SPIRITS PRESENT
Sir Oliver Lodge had sent a telegram in saying 'Our great-hearted champion will still be continuing his campaign on the other side, with added wisdom and knowledge. Sursum corda.' The two minutes' silence which followed was notable for its completedness. Mr Swaffer asserted that Sir Henry Segrave's spirit returned to him in his London flat after Sir Henry's death at Windermere, and that Lady Segrave had told him that she was perfectly conscious that her husband's spirit 'was always beside her answering her.'
During Mrs Robert's occupation of the rostrum she declared that there was beside her a spirit from a woman between 45 and 50 years old 'who assures me that she passed into the spirit world having thrown herself under a horse. She gives the name of Emily Wilding Davison.' Immediately a man sprang up and shouted 'I know her. She was the suffragette who threw herself under the King's Derby horse. She was a great friend of mine. I have personally received a message from her tonight.'
Mrs Roberts only once failed to get a response from someone in the congregation, when she described spirits whom she declared were present and were anxious to pass on messages to their friends and relations in the hall. Large numbers of people were unable to gain admission to the service." (Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer 14 July 1930) |
| Related Archival Material | Programme (RAHE/1/1930/59) |