Harry Price
British writer (1881–1948)
Harry Price (17 January 1881 – 29 March 1948) was a British psychic researcher and author, who gained public prominence for his investigations into psychical phenomena and exposing fraudulent spiritualist mediums. He is best known for his well-publicised investigation of the purportedly haunted Borley Rectory in Essex, England.
Early life
Although Price claimed his birth was in Shropshire he was actually born in London in Red Lion Square on the site of the South Place Ethical Society's Conway Hall. He was the only son and second child of Edward Ditcher Price (1834–1906), then traveller (salesman) for the paper manufacturing firm of Edward Saunders and Son, and his wife Emma Randall nee Meech (1860–1902). His father being born at Rodington in Shropshire, Price spent much time in the county in holidays with relatives. He was educated in New Cross, first at Waller Road Infants School and then Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham Boys' School. He completed his education at Goldsmiths College, studying chemistry and photography, as well as electrical and mechanical engineering. In Who's Who, he claimed to have been educated in Shropshire as well as London but did not name his schools.
At 15, Price founded the Carlton Dramatic Society and wrote plays, including a drama, about his early experience with a poltergeist which he said took place at a haunted unnamed manor house in Shropshire.
According to Richard Morris, in his biography Harry Price: The Psychic Detective (2006), Price came to the attention of the press when he claimed an early interest in space-telegraphy.
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This entry incorporates text from “Harry Price” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.