If you'd like to learn more, here's an article I wrote recently about WWI spiritualism:

theconversation.com/after-the-fi...

And here's more about Raymond:

lithub.com/the-rise-of-...

During and immediately after the First World War, people turned to spiritualism like never before to help them grieve, but also to give them a more bearable alternative image: their loved ones didn't die horribly and far from home, but were actually enjoying a peaceful and active utopian afterlife.

Yes, the Lodges may have been exploited by Gladys Leonard, and there's much about the sittings that doesn't add up, but equally we can't dismiss how it genuinely helped them process losing Raymond. After several sittings with the medium, Mrs Lodge said, 'We can face Christmas now.'

It inspired dozens of other books 'written' from dead soldiers. But I don't think it was a way of making money. Grief in WWI was so widespread that no one's loss felt special - yet everyone knew of Raymond Lodge. To publish a book from a dead soldier was to make them stand out and be remembered.

These sittings were published in a book, 'Raymond; or Life and Death', and compiled the messages from Raymond alongside the letters he wrote from the frontlines in France. It was hugely popular, and was sent out to soldiers by their families. You can read it here: archive.org/details/raym...

Sir Oliver was a keen member of the Society for Psychical Research, and often went to séances, but mostly from a sceptical and investigative point of view. Now, he and his wife obsessively met with the medium Gladys Leonard to receive messages from Raymond from beyond the grave.

You can listen to the podcast here: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/g...