Hall, Trevor H(enry) (1910-)

Surveyor and noted British author of books on parapsychological subjects. Hall was born May 28, 1910, at Wakefield, England. He was a major in the British army during World War II (1939-45), was senior partner of V. Walker and Son (chartered surveyors) (1945-80), and became director of the Huddersfield Building Society (1958-80).

Hall was a Perrott student in psychical research at Trinity College, Cambridge (1954-56). He had special interest in conjuring and compiled A Bibliography of Books on Conjuring in English from 1580 to 1850 (1957). His expert knowledge of conjuring was, in part, responsible for the skeptical attitude that became evident as he began to write about physical mediums, many of whom had been caught in fraud. In his early book The Spiritualists (1964), Hall confirmed the belief of many that the phenomena of famous medium Florence Cook were fraudulent and suggested that she was having an affair with Sir William Crookes.

His other books on psychical researchers were equally critical. His book on Edmund Gurney (1964), for example, investigated the claimed trickery of G. A. Smith and Douglas Blackburn, whose second-sight act Gurney investigated. Hall's book, though, on the whole was sympathetic to Gurney. His book Strange Things (1968) ruined the reputation of Ada Goodrich-Freer (known in psychical research literature as "Miss X"), and The Search for Harry Price (1977) effectively denigrates the character and work of the famed psychical researcher.

Hall also contributed articles on the history of psychical research to the International Journal of Parapsychology. He went on to write several texts on ghosts. During the late 1960s an interest in Sherlock Holmes (whose creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, was a confirmed Spiritualist) emerged, and Hall wrote several popular volumes, including Sherlock Holmes: Ten Literary Studies (1969), The Late Mr. Sherlock Holmes (1971), and Sherlock Holmes and His Creator (1974).

Sources:

Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger. The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. New York: Paragon House, 1991.

Hall, Trevor H. The Enigma of Daniel Home. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1984.

——. The Search for Harry Price. Dallas: Southwest Book Services, 1978.

——. The Spiritualists. 1962. Reprinted as The Medium and the Scientist. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1984.

——. The Strange Case of Edmund Gurney. London: Duckworth, 1964.

Hall, Trevor H., and J. L. Campbell. Strange Things. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1968.

Hall, Trevor H., and E. J. Dingwall. Four Modern Ghosts. London: Duckworth, 1958.

Hall, Trevor H., E. J. Dingwall, and K. M. Goldney. The Haunting of Borley Rectory. London: Duckworth, 1956.

Medhurst, R. G., and K. M. Goldney. "William Crookes and the Physical Phenomena of Mediumship." Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 54, no. 195 (March 1964).

Pleasants, Helene, ed. Biographical Dictionary of Parapsychology. New York: Helix Press, 1964.