From LEWIS CHILDS, ESQ., OF SHEFFIELD
(This description tells of a compact made between two friends that the one to pass over first should endeavour to manifest to the other. The one friend died, and a few months later Mr. Childs went to Crewe and obtained a fine photograph of his friend, independently recognised by between two hundred and three hundred people who knew him. Mr. Childs’ account is accompanied by certificate of recognition from the members of the deceased man’s family, who were not spiritualists.)
For five years I worked side by side with Mr. R. H. Turton, and on several occasions tried to interest him in psychic matters by showing him various spirit photographs which I and various friends had secured. He generally greeted the matter contemptuously, and often used the words “bunkum” and “rubbish.” On one notable occasion, however, after a long argument, he and I made a compact that which ever of us passed away first should endeavour to give the other some evidence of continued existence beyond death.
Mr. Turton passed away on March 17th of this year. Seven weeks later I visited the Crewe Circle. I made no appointment, and Mr. Hope and Mrs. Buxton could have no idea that I was coming. I took a packet of plates with me and conducted the usual examination of the apparatus used. I opened the box of plates and loaded the carrier. After the exposure had been made I developed and fixed the plate. Everything was in my own hands. As the image came up in the developing dish I noted the face of a man above my right shoulder. The print shows a remarkable likeness to my friend, R. H. Turton, and I am convinced that he has thus fulfilled the compact made betwixt us.
I have shown it to his relatives and friends, and his shopmates, and they have no hesitation in recognising the photograph. Though none of the relatives are spiritualists, they assert that it resembles him as he lay in his coffin. No photograph of Mr. Turton had been taken recently, and I cannot discover one which bears any resemblance to this.
Thus did my friend keep his compact, to convince me that memory lives beyond death.
(Signed) L. Childs.
42, Glover Road, Lowfield, Sheffield.