Person    | Male  Born 17/6/1832  Died 4/4/1919

Sir William Crookes

Categories: Paranormal, Science

Chemist, physicist and science journalist. Born 143 Regent Street, presumably in a residential apartment above his father's gentlemen's outfitters shop in the Nash-designed terraces. Worked on spectroscopy and pioneer of vacuum tubes. Invented the Crookes tube and the Crookes radiometer. Discovered the element Thallium. His cousin, Charles Crookes, designed the gates for the Great Exhibition.

In the 1870 and 80s his studies into spiritualism led to him concluding that mediums were indeed communicating with spirits, including his dead wife, and he maintained that position, never apparently wavering. This has variously been put down to gullibility, shame at having been fooled initially, an affair with a medium and poor eyesight. Crookes liked to demonstrate his beliefs by joining groups: the Society for Psychical Research, the Theosophical Society, Ghost Club and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

Died at home, 7 Kensington Park Gardens - we wonder who he's chatting to right now.

We should mention the 'Sir William Crookes Spiritist Society' - this is a registered charity, with a charity shop, that lists its activities, at the Charity Commission, as "Study, prayer and spiritual healing". "Spiritism" is a spiritualistic philosophy and religion codified in the 19th century. We now know more about that subject that we need so will stop there.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Sir William Crookes

Commemorated ati

Sir William Crookes

Sir William Crookes, 1832 - 1919, scientist, lived here from 1880 until his d...

Read More

Other Subjects

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett married Robert Browning in the St Marylebone Church facing York Gate in Euston Road, on 12 September 1846. Keen participant in spiritual séances, taking Robert with her, but he wa...

Person, Paranormal, Poetry, Italy

3 memorials
Hannen Swaffer and Mrs Swaffer

Hannen Swaffer and Mrs Swaffer

Supporters of the Rochester Square Spiritualist Temple.

Group, Paranormal, Religion

1 memorial
Annie Besant

Annie Besant

Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self rule. Born Annie Wood at 2 Fish Street Hill. Married, aged 19, Frank Besant (brother to Sir Walter) bu...

Person, Gender Issues, Nationalism, Paranormal, Politics & Administration, India, Ireland

4 memorials
Francis Smith

Francis Smith

The Hammersmith ghost started haunting Black Lion Lane and St Paul's Churchyard in 1804. One night an excise officer, Francis Smith, filled his blunderbuss with shot, and himself with ale before ki...

Person, Paranormal

1 memorial
The Theosophical Society

The Theosophical Society

Formed in New York City by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge and others. The society's initial objective was the study of Occultism, the Cabala and Eastern religions...

Group, Community / Clubs, Paranormal, USA

1 memorial