Thomas Lacey was born on November 4, 1895, in Glossop, Derbyshire, England. His journey into the spiritual world began early in life, leading to a lifetime of mediumship. On March 18, 1918, he married Edith Emma Lomas in Whitfield. Edith, born on September 28, 1895, was not a medium herself, but she played a vital role in supporting Thomas's work.
In the early 1920s, the Laceys made a significant move to Canada—settling in the Kitchener-Waterloo region. It was here in 1924 that Thomas began conducting séances, with Edith actively participating.
Throughout the 1960s, Thomas and Edith held séances in the home of Otto and Nelda Smith in Kitchener with attendees reporting experiencing apports, materialisations, automatic writing, and even Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP).
My Special Guest Is Dr. Nick Richbell
Dr. Nick Richbell recently received his PhD in History from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. His area of research is the history of Spiritualism, and his doctoral dissertation is a biographical history about the medium Maurice Barbanell and his guide, Silver Birch. The teachings of Silver Birch are still talked about in Spiritualist churches today, however, Maurice Barbanell’s name is rarely mentioned.
Nick has long believed that there is more to life than an earthly existence. However, it was not until he started work as the Head of Special Collections and Archives at the University of Waterloo Library that he started to further consider the afterlife. The archives had two séance related collections. The Maines-Pincock Family collection holds records of seances conducted by the American medium William Cartheuser in the private home of Jenny O’Hara Pincock in St. Catharines, Ontario. Another collection, the Thomas Lacey Lecture collection contains over 400 lectures given by Lacey while in trance. Nick was able to bring in a new Lacey collection during his tenure at Waterloo: the Thomas Lacey séance collection: over 100 reel-to-reel tapes from the 1960s of recordings of seances conducted by Lacey in a Kitchener, Ontario home. He is often invited to give talks about his research about this magnificent collection. Nick was the research associate on the audio-documentary, The Ghost of Thomas Lacey, produced by Anthroscope Media.
Originally from London, England, Nick is currently the Head of Special Collections and Archives at Clemson University in South Carolina. Prior to moving to South Carolina, Nick oversaw the Special Collections and Archives department at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. He also managed the archives of the Canadian Pacific Railway in Montreal and worked at the McGill University Archives as well as the McGill University Health Centre.
In this episode, you will be able to: 1. Hear clips from Thomas Lacey's seances.
2. Discover more about Thomas Lacey and his mediumship.
If you value this podcast and want to enjoy more episodes please come and find us on https://www.patreon.com/Haunted_History_Chronicles to support the podcast, gain a wealth of additional exclusive podcasts, writing and other content.
Links to all Haunted History Chronicles Social Media Pages, Published Materials and more: https://linktr.ee/hauntedhistorychronicles?fbclid=IwAR15rJF2m9nJ0HTXm27HZ3QQ2Llz46E0UpdWv-zePVn9Oj9Q8rdYaZsR74I
*NEW* Podcast Shop: https://www.teepublic.com/user/haunted-history-chronicles
Buy Me A Coffee https://ko-fi.com/hauntedhistorychronicles
Guest Links
Email: nick@drspooky.com