Kate Wingfield

          BRITISH PRIVATE medium, the Miss A. of whom Frederic Myers writes enthusiastically in SPR Proceedings and his Human Personality, and the Miss Rawson of Piddington's report, in SPR Proceedings, Vol. XVIII., on cross correspondence with Mrs. Thompson. The identity was revealed by Sir Lawrence J. Jones, President of the SPR for 1928 in his presidential address in SPR Proceedings, Vol. XXXVIII. He told the story of a series of sittings which he and his wife had with her in the years 1900-01 when her clairvoyance and automatic writing developed into trance mediumship. He observed many physical phenomena, raps, table tilting, movement of objects and apports. In one instance three tiny unset turquoises were brought as apports. But it was the trance-speaking phase of Miss Wingfield's mediumship that convinced Sir Lawrence Jones of survival. Deceased relatives proved their identity and on several occasions her living daughter came through as a communicator.

Among the guides of the medium was an entity, Semirus, who claimed to have been a doctor in ancient Egypt. Once a sitter desired some information from him. Semirus did not come. Later in the day he came through in automatic writing and explained that he heard the call, but was unable to come as he assisted in a new operation at X. Hospital. The operation was successful. On inquiry the story of the operation was found true. Semirus could report on patients at a great distance with incredible rapidity. Someone asked information about the health of his aunt. Semirus went away and came back to say that the aunt was dead. The sitter hurried away and to his relief found his aunt alive. But he suddenly realised that he gave, by mistake, the address of a neighbour's house. A day or two later a funeral took place from there.

The sittings of Miss Wingfield primarily served the purpose of rescue circles in a milder sense. Many spirits were brought by the controls and the error of their ways was pointed out. The sittings of Miss Wingfield were abandoned in 1901 as the family objected that she should be known as a trance medium. The automatic teachings that came through her hand were published in two little books: Guidance from Beyond, 1923, and More Guidance from Beyond, 1925. Miss Wingfield died in 1927.

Source (with minor modifications): An Encyclopaedia of Psychic Science by Nandor Fodor (1934).