Una Troubridge

Una Troubridge (1897-1963), an English sculptor and translator, carried out mediumship research together with the novelist Radclyffe Hall.

Life and Career

Una Troubridge, born Margot Elena Gertrude Taylor in 1897, chose to be called Una, an early family nickname.1 Her father was a foreign office official, her mother a member of minor aristocracy. She graduated from the Royal College of Art, then set up her own sculpture studio, subsequently achieving success both as a sculptor and as a French translator.

In 1908 she married Ernest Troubridge, a naval captain, taking the title ‘Lady’ when he was promoted admiral in 1922, although by this time the couple were legally separated. Earlier in 1915 Troubridge started a lesbian relationship with Radclyffe Hall, author of The Well of Loneliness and other novels, with whom she lived until Hall’s death in 1943.

Psychical Research

Mediumship

In 1916 Hall visited Gladys Leonard, a medium who had come to the attention of the Society for Psychical Research, and who she believed facilitated communication with Mabel Batten, her former partner who had recently died. Subsequently, Troubridge accompanied Hall on weekly investigative sittings with Leonard, taking it in turns to act as interviewer and note-taker.2 For details, see Radclyffe Hall.

Troubridge later contributed a paper on characteristics of Leonard’s mediumship, comparing her control personality ‘Feda’, to documented cases of multiple personality such as Doris Fischer’s ‘Margaret’.3

In 1925 the couple sat with George Valiantine, a controversial American direct voice medium whom some investigators considered fraudulent. However, they considered at least some of the phenomena they observed to be genuine.4  For details, see George Valiantine.

Apparition

In 1921 Troubridge published a detailed report of an apparitional sighting experienced by herself and Hall.5 The couple planned to meet a friend at a particular location, and Troubridge (though not Hall) plainly saw her as they approached. However, the woman was not there when they arrived, and instead they found her at her home some minutes later, preparing to leave.

Works

Book

The Life and Death of Radclyffe Hall (1961). London: Hammond & Co.

Articles

Review of Dei Fenomeni d'Infestazione, by E. Bozzano (1919). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 19, 107-8

On a series of sittings with Mrs Osborne Leonard (1919, with Radclyffe-Hall). Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 30, 78, 339-554.

Evidential matter of practical importance (1920). Psychic Research Quarterly. October. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd.

A veridical apparition (1921). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 20, 78-88.

The modus operandi in so-called mediumistic trance (1922). Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 32, 344-78.

Some further consideration of the modus operandi in mediumistic trance (1924). Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 34, 298-309.

Note [concerning sittings with George Valiantine] (1926). Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 36, 76.

Melvyn Willin

Literature

Bradley, D. (1926). The SPR series of sittings with Mr. George Valiantine: Reply by Mr. H. Dennis Bradley to Mr. Hereward Carrington and Una, Lady Troubridge. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 23, 148-56.

Cline, S. (1997). Radclyffe Hall: A Woman Called John. London: John Murray.

Radclyffe-Hall & Troubridge, U. (1919). On a series of sittings with Mrs Osborne Leonard. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 30, 78, 339-554.

Troubridge, U. (1921). A veridical apparition. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 20, 78-88.

Troubridge, U. (1922). The modus operandi in so-called mediumistic trance. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 32, 344-78.

Troubridge, U. (1924). Some further consideration of the modus operandi in mediumistic trance. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 34, 298-309.

Wooley, V.J. (1928). An account of a series of sittings with Mr. George Valiantine. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 36, 52-77.

Endnotes

Footnotes

- 1. Biographical details in Cline (1997).

- 2. Radclyffe-Hall & Troubridge (1919).

- 3. Troubridge (1922, 1924).

- 4. Wooley (1928).

- 5. Troubridge (1921).

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