George William Fisk (1882-1972)So, George William Fisk was the son of a

much travelled Baptist minister, the Reve-

rend Ebenezer Edward Fisk, and Annie

Dinah Pratt from Birmingham.

Regarding his name, he was officially called

‘George’, but mum says that for some rea-

son he didn’t like the name much, and close

friends called him ‘Will’, while inofficial pa-

pers he generally liked to call himself GW

Fisk.

He was the third and final child in the family,

and the only son, being several years youn-

ger than his two older sisters, who were both

born when the Reverend Edward Fisk was

preaching in Bexley Heath in Kent (Ethel in

1875 and Elsie in 1876). The Reverend was

earning £10 a month – a healthy enough

wage in those times.

After less than three years in Bexley Heath,

and probably in late 1876, the family moved

north to live at 3 Ivy Leigh, West Derby, Lan-

cashire (now part of Liverpool) and the Re-

verend was the pastor at the Brook Chapel

just up the road from the family home.

It was while they were living here that, on Ja-

nuary 9, 1882, George William Fisk was

born. So, you could say that he was born

into a reasonably well-to-do family and was

given a religious upbringing in keeping with

his family’s strong Baptist tradition (two of Geor-

ge’s uncles were also Baptist ministers, and two

of his aunts married Baptist ministers).

George William Fisk would probably have also

been very familiar with St Albans, which was still

something of a Fisk family base, and was where

his uncle James was now running the success-

ful drapery business that had been inherited

from his grandfather.

But although he was born in Liverpool, George

William Fisk only spent the first few years of his

life there.

In 1886, they were recorded in Kelly’s Directory

as having moved back south to live in Wal-

thamstow in London, but by 1891, they were

back north in York, and were living at number 52,

Holgate Road. This is currently the address of

the Holgate Antiques shop.

His father was 47 by this time, and probably pas-

tor at the nearby York Baptist Church, while his

wife Annie was 46.

By the time of the 1891 census, Ethel and Elsie

were 16 and 15, and George William Fisk was

nine. They also had a servant living with them,

21 year old Sarah Holmes from Durham.

In the 1901 census, the family was living in Shi-

pley, and GW Fisk was a 19 year old medical

student.

Much later in life, George would become a very

active member of the Society for Psychical Re-

search, and a 1973 obituary written by one of his closest associates, Donald West, in the So-

ciety’s Journal, and an article by Rosalind Heywood on his work with ESP in the same issue,

are the sources of much information on his life.

It must have been evident from very early on that George was an extraordinarily bright young

man.

As West writes “he began as a medical student, but gave that up for financial reasons, andtook a degree in divinity instead.”

He may have switched to theology under pressure from his deeply religious parents, who

were more willing to support him that way. He studied at London University (B.D, 1906) and

Victoria University (B.A, 1907). Victoria was a federal university that included Owens College

(Manchester), University College Liverpool and Yorkshire College (Leeds, now Leeds Uni-

versity).

It was probably in Leeds that George was studying, because, in the same year as his gra-

duation, he married Florence Watson. They are on record as marrying in North Bierley,

Yorkshire in 1907.

Florence Watson’s story is told in full in the section on the Watson ancestry, but to summa-

rise, she was born in Bradford in 1874, and was 33 when she married 25 year old George.

It was fairly common knowledge among the later generations that father or

grandfather George was eight years younger than his wife.

Florence was originally born in Manningham, Bradford but later moved to ne-

arby Shipley (the same town where George’s parents lived from at least 1901

to 1911, and very close to where the Watsons lived).

Florence worked in the cotton mills in Shipley, a very difficult life indeed. Just

how they met is odd, as George W Fisk and Florence must have moved in

very different circles, but Aunty Sue has vague memories that Florence was

working as a servant in the Fisk household.

This is very possible, they were all living in Shipley at the time.

There is no doubt that their marriage was not a popular one with the family.

According to Aunty Sue, “Granny was about 8 years older than Grandpa andwas a servant in (I think) their household -that would make sense as Grannycame from Shipley- and their romance caused a rift in the family as Grannywas not considered a suitable match � I never remember Mummy talking ofher grandparents - or Grandpa talking about his parents - so I guess theynever healed the rift -very sad.”So George Fisk, the son of a Baptist minister and budding academic had ma-

rried a local lady from a poor background, and who was several years older

than he was.

His mother and father, Annie Dinah and the Reverend Edward Fisk, seemed

to disapprove of the whole thing.

It was a shame, because much as they may not have appreciated his ‘lowly’

choice of wife, George Fisk would be a very devoted husband indeed and

also go on to be perhaps the most fascinating person in our whole family tree.

Aunty Sue believes that it was due to the family’s lack of respect for his choice

of wife that George made a dramatic decision after graduating and marrying.

He decided to distance himself from his family. And he did so in style. He and

his wife went to live in China!

Ivy Leigh, West Derby

11, East Avenue, Walthamstow,

where the Fisk family lived in 1886.

55

They went to Shantung, which according to Wikipedia, “During the ninete-enth century, China became increasingly exposed to Western influence, andShantung, a coastal province, was especially affected. Qingdao was leasedto Germany in 1897 and Weihai to Britain in 1898.” Weihai is indeed the lo-

cation of Cheeloo, where George Fisk worked.

GW Fisk was just 25 at the time, and in 1908 he became a physics lecturer

One of the typical brick houses that were built in the 1890s and 1900s for use by

American and British missionaries living in the city.

The Fisks would probably have lived somewhere like this.

at Shantung Christian University, and remained in the job until 1915,

which was also the year that the institution adopted its modern name of

Cheeloo University.

Says Aunty Sue “I was sure Grandpa had told me he went to China asa missionary to placate the family - although he did not really have anystrong religious convictions- but he was open to being converted! Ishould think his family had destroyed his faith.”

Yale University’s website describes the origin of the University. “Ameri-can Presbyterian, English Baptist, Anglican, and Canadian Presbyterianmission agencies worked together to form what came to be known asShantung Christian University. The University's earliest roots went backto Tengchow College, which was established by American Presbyte-rians in 1882 with Calvin Mateer as its leader. In 1902 the Presbyteriansand English Baptists agreed to combine their efforts in higher educationin Shantung, forming an Arts College at Weihsien, a Theological Co-llege at Tsingchowfu, and a Medical College, which was eventually es-tablished in Tsinan. By 1909 it had been determined that the Universityshould be consolidated in one location, and Tsinan was chosen.”

George worked at the Theological College, in Qingzhou, which formed

part of the university, and was founded in 1894 by British Baptists. Given

the Fisk family’s Baptist links, this may explain how George Fisk ended

up working so far away. The university itself was dissolved in 1952 and

the different faculties were made part of other universities. The name

Qingzhou is just one of the many different transcriptions of the Chinese

name, which makes things very complicated, as its is also somtimes ca-

lled any of Chingzhou, Ch’ing-chou-fu, Tsing-chau-fu, Tsingchowfu,

Qingchow, Ch’ing-chou, Tsingchow, I-tu-hsien, I-tu and Yitu - and seve-

ral of these names appear on different documents related to GW Fisk

and his wife.

This photo shows the original entrance gate, as it still stands

today, to what would have been the main campus of

Cheeloo University in George Fisk’s time.

Location of

Shantung

56

The founder of Shandong Christian University and

Tsingchow Boys’ Boarding School, Samuel Couling, with students in 1909.

He was officially there working for the China Inland

Mission, which Wikipedia explains “was founded onprinciples of faith and prayer. From the beginning itrecruited missionaries from the working class aswell as single women, which was a new practice fora large agency. Even today, no appeals for fundsare made, instead a reliance upon God is practicedto move people through prayer alone. The goal ofthe mission that began dedicated to China hasgrown to include bringing the Gospel to the millionsof inhabitants of East Asia who have never heard orhad access to the message of Jesus Christ.”But although in a 1915 travel document, George

Fisk describes his profession as being a ‘missio-

nary’, nobody seems to remember him as being

particularly religious at all, and he was really more

of a teacher.

It was while he was there, in 1910, that Florence

gave birth to what would be their only child – Muriel

Eleanor Fisk, our grandmother. According to mum,

Florence “nearly died in childbirth in China and ei-ther didn't wish for, or more likely was unable tohave more children.” So, Muriel would be an only

child. Tsingchowfu is the place given as Muriel Fis-

k’s place of birth in several documents. It is now

known as Qingzhou and has a population of eight

and a half million.

The year after Muriel’s birth would

be an eventful one in China. The

Chinese Revolution began with

the Wuchang Uprising on October

10, 1911 and ended with the abdi-

cation of Emperor Puyi on Fe-

bruary 12, 1912. The book NewThrills in Old China was Charlotte

Hawes memoirs of her time in the

country, and she even mentions

GW Fisk in the context of the Uni-

versity.

She writes “the American Ministerat Peking sent through the variousconsuls a circular to Americans li-ving in the interior, stating that"while both parties in the Revolu-tion are friendly to foreigners, thetroubles may lead to the stirring upof the lawless elements who couldnot be controlled." He thereforeurged all Americans to go to thecoast, especially women and chil-dren. We, at Wei Hsien, felt, however,that as are situated near the Ger-man railroad, and everything waspeaceful apparently in Shantung,and that it would make the Chi-nese who are friendly unnecessa-rily suspicious of foreigners if weshould all leave ; it would exposea valuable mission plant to lootingand probably destruction, and stirup a lawless element to maketrouble where none existed. Wehad about 450 students on theplace whose homes are widelyscattered in the country roundabout, and we could easily getwarning of any trouble brewingagainst us. So all our school work went on asusual, except in the Girls' School,where it was thought best not tohave a spring term, but let the girlsremain in their village homes. Sothere was no graduating class in1912, which caused a shortage insupply of teachers for our WeiHsien country girls' schools, as

SHANTUNG CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY (CHEELOO)BY CHARLES HODGE CORBETT, 1955

REPORTS OF THE MISSIONARY AND BENEVOLENTBOARDS AND COMMITTEES, 1914

JOURNAL OF THE NORTH-CHINA BRANCH OF THE ROYALASIATIC SOCIETY, 1921

well as for the schools in other places in Shantung andother provinces. But the Wei Hsien girls' school wasopened as usual in the fall, and all the country girls' andboys' schools flourishing. The people show a growinginterest in their girls, spending more for their education,and even the heathen are opening schools for girls, onebeing established in An K'u City for the education ofgirls in that country. Despite the unsettled times, the Boys' Academy waskept open, and twenty-one boys graduated, passed theShantung College entrance examinations, and enteredthe Arts College at the New Year. President Paul D.Bergen says that at the outbreak of the Revolution thework of the college was somewhat disturbed, but con-tinued without interruption. Many of the students be-came uneasy when rumours became alarming, feeling,as they said, that it was not right for them to sit quietlyat their books when their comrades were dying in thecause of freedom; accordingly, all who wished to do so

were given permission to return home. Nearly a hun-dred took advantage of this, and not a few of them en-listed as soldiers in the Revolutionary army or devotedtheir energies to some other work in connection withthe cause of their country. It was touching to watch the patriotic tide rising in theseyoung hearts, even though it sometimes found an ex-cessive expression, and in one or two instances led toregrettable collisions. The graduating class numbered thirty-two, the largestin the history of the college. As in former years, all wereChristians, and are now engaged in Christian work. Sixare devoting themselves to the work of the ministry andare now studying in the Union Theological Seminary atCh'ing Chowfu, under charge of our Presby-terian mi-nisters; Rev. W. M. Hayes, D.D.. and Rev. Wra. P. Chal-fant, D.D., with Revs. Bruce, Burt, Nichols and Fiskrepresenting the English Baptist part of the Unionwork.”

SHANTUNG, THE SACRED PROVINCE OF CHINABY ROBERT COVENTRY FORSYTH, 1912.

LIST OF ENGLISH BAPTIST MISSION STAFF

Border crossing from Canada to U.S, 11 Aug 1915

Canadian Passenger List, 30 Jul 1915 for the ‘Monteagle’. Port of Departure: Hong Kong - Port of Arrival: Vancouver, British Columbia

UK immigration, Plymouth, 30 Aug 1915

In 1915, when their daughter was aged five years, the couple decided to

return to England, for what was probably the first time since they had

moved to China seven years before. In part this decision may have been

for the sake of their daughter, in order for her to receive a British educa-

tion and upbringing. But there may have been any number of other moti-

ves, for these were very unstable times to say the least.

Britain had declared war on Germany, although the Fisks, like everybody

else, would not have known just how big the war going to be. Not even in

Shantung were they safe from trouble. The Germans and British had had

conflicting interests in the province for some time, and in the Battle of

Tsingtao, British and Japanese forces combined to conquer the German

coaling port of Qingdao.

For whatever reason it was, George and Florence, with their daughter Mu-

riel, made the long journey back to England. No direct flights in those

days, it was a mammoth expedition. First they had to travel 1000 miles

south to Hong Kong, from where they could get a ship to Vancouver, Ca-

nada. They sailed on the Monteagle, and are recorded as arriving in Van-

couver on July 30, 1915.

From there they took the Canadian Pacific Railway across Canada, and

crossed the border near Niagara Falls (which they visited on the way). On

his immigration card, Fisk claims to have been a minister. It also says he

had brown hair and grey eyes, was 5 ft 7 ins, and had no distinguishing

marks. Florence, meanwhile, had hazel eyes, dark brown hair and was 5

ft 3 ins. They state that their destination is England, to visit ‘father’ Ed-

ward in Hunstanton. I am not sure whether by ‘father’ they refer to his cle-

rical post or the fact that he was George Fisk’s father, but perhaps after

all those years away, they wanted Ebenezer Edward, who was 71 by this

stage, to meet his granddaughter and see if they could heal the bad fee-

lings between them.

They arrived in New York on August 11, 1915, so the journey across Ame-

rica took nearly two weeks. There was a 29 year old English lady called

Henrietta Lifton sharing their carriage, who was also arriving from China,

but I have no idea who she was. She is not recorded as having any job –

perhaps she was a servant, perhaps she was a friend or colleague, per-

haps she was just somebody they met along the way. They then sailed on

the Allan Line’s Sicilian, arriving in Plymouth on August 30.

If any attempt was made to patch things up with the Fisk family, then they

were probably not very successful. But relations with the Watsons were

presumably good, and mum tells me that the daughter, Muriel, went to

live with Florence’s sister Hetty, who now lived in Harrogate.

That was because George and Florence didn’t stay in England long, they

were soon back off to China, and as a child, Muriel would see very litle of

her parents on the other side of the world.

Little Muriel did not travel with them. Says mum “I remember Granny te-lling me that she travelled on the trans-Siberian Railway when she wentback to China to visit them in her school summer holidays (she only sawher parents once in every two or three years). That was the quickest wayto get there.”

The outside of the former

Kailan Mining Administra-

tion building today, and

the street outside appa-

rently still has red British

style phone boxes

His teaching days now behind him,

George started working as British

vice-consul at the Chinese Emigra-

tion Bureau Center, North China

(1915-19). This more or less coinci-

des exactly with the dates of the First

World War, but I cannot be sure ei-

ther where exactly he was based or

whether his work was in any way di-

rectly connected to the war effort.

However, he then became labour su-

perintendent of the Kailan Mining Ad-

ministration (1919-30).

This company was based in Tientsin

(also commonly spelled Tianjin). Not

far north of Shantung, where they

had lived before, this is the sixth big-

gest city in China, and currently has

a population of over 11 million.

According to an article written in

1926 by none other than the father of

Chinese communism Mao Tse-tung,

“the Kailan Coal Mines was an inclu-sive name for the large contiguousKaiping and Luanchow coalfields inHopei Province, then employing overfifty thousand workers. During the YiHo Tuan Movement of 1900 the Bri-

tish imperialists seized the Kaipingmines. “Subsequently the Chinese organi-zed the Luanchow Coal Mining Com-pany, which was later incorporatedinto the Kailan Mining Administration.Both coalfields thus came under theexclusive control of British imperia-lism.”“We can see the important position ofthe industrial proletariat in the Chi-nese revolution from the strength ithas displayed in the strikes of the lastfour years, such as ... the strikes inthe Kailan and Tsiaotso coal mines.”

Being the labour superintendent, the

Kailan strike, which took place in Oc-

tober 1922, must have given George

Fisk plenty to deal with. These mines

supplied no less than 60 per cent of

China’s entire coal supply.

He was granted Royal Licence in

1921 to wear the insignia of the 5th

Class of the Order of the Excellent

Crop, conferred on him by the Presi-

dent of China for valuable services

with the Kailan Mining Administration

during the war.

57

Rowland Gibson’s 1914 book “Forces Mi-ning and Undermining China” dedicates a

whole chapter to the Rise of the Kailan Mi-

ning Administration.

“We may trace in the Kailan Administratio-n's history China’s attempts to keep the fo-reigner out. All through the story about tobe related we hear Chinese officials sayingto one another, " We must not allow thesebarbarians to mine China, or they will un-dermine China." We can also follow the va-rious phases whereby any big Chineseconcern gradually falls into debt, passesthrough a stage of foreign possession orcontrol, and eventually emerges success-fully as a joint Chinese and foreign ... Ins-tead of the foreign directors of the ChineseEngineering and Mining Company we seethe foreign Powers. Instead of a Chinesecoal-mining company falling into debt wesee the Chinese nation falling into debt. “But, after a while, we shall see China de-veloping as a big Chino-foreign concernunder joint management. We shall hear nomore of Chinese resentment, becauseprosperity will have soothed it. And after-wards we shall see the most glorious dawnof industrial development which the worldhas ever known. In this story lies a trustykey to China's unborn history. It is not diffi-cult, therefore, to prophesy good things. Just in the same way that Chinese share-holders in the Kailan Administration nowtouch dividends they never did before, theChinese of to-morrow will reap the benefitof factories and mills and railways. Busytrains will be rushing with feverish activity

past the sites of former temples. Corn-lands will cover forgotten graves. The bangand clatter of sorting-rooms, the whirr ofmachinery, or the telephone-bell will havedrowned the shouts of rebel soldiery. “The bang and clatter of coal-tubs, thewhirr of machinery, or the telephone-bell may be heard at Tongshan any dayof the week. They sing a song of wages,war, and cheque-books, but the war isonly commercial war and the cheque-books flutter in London as much as theydo in Peking.“In 1909 European mining circles were in-terested to know that China proposed is-suing amended mining laws. Beingignorant of China and her customs, thesemining men were foolish enough to expectmuch instead of little, though they after-wards found out their mistake. Some ofthem were on the tip-toe of excitement, pic-turing to themselves a great unlocking of avirgin Eldorado. When the new Chinese mining laws even-tually made their appearance, all these vi-sionary hopes were doomed to receive avery rude shock. Instead of unlocking hertreasures to the western barbarian, Chinaoffered, with a smile, to let the barbarianrisk his money, provided China should re-tain the soil and receive whatever profitsshould come out of it. In a word, the newmining laws were ridiculous in the extreme,and they were promptly returned by the Bri-tish Minister as unacceptable and wantingrevision. “It is interesting to reflect that China fears

The job obviously had George moving around the

country, for he must have also spent considerable time

somewhere called Tongshan. We know this because

mum has an old silver cigarette box (shown in the pic-

ture above left) that is inscribed with the words “G WFisk Esq - a token in recognition of his services as Ho-norary Treasurer of the Tongshan Club - May 1923.”

Just what kind of club it was that he was treasurer for is

not clear. There is a golf club nearby, but as mum says,

“I don't remember him playing golf. His great loveswere books, classical music, poetry, cricket and chess.”

Tongshan is indeed the name of the mine that GW Fisk

mentions in a later article of his own, where he met a

miner with incredible directional sense.

GW Fisk would probably have been around at the time

of a major disaster in which 422 people were killed, as

reported here in Australian newspaper, The Argus.

Tongshan is also mentioned in Rowland Gibson’s book,

highlighted in bold type in the text.

THE KAILAN MINING ADMINISTRATION

losing her heritage to the foreigner, and only gives him miningcontrol when she is feeling distinctly prostrate. This is twiceexemplified in the history of the Kailan Mining Administration:first, in 1900, when the Kaiping Mines were allowed to comeinto the hands of the Chinese Engineering and Mining Com-pany; secondly, in 1912, when the Lanchow Mining Companyagreed to amalgamate its business with that of its old enemythe Chinese Engineering and Mining Company and come underforeign control. “July 1st, 1912, was an epoch-making date in the history of Chi-nese mining. It was the birthday of the Kailan Mining Adminis-tration. For a period of ten years from that date both theLanchow and the Chinese Engineering and Mining Companiesagreed to sink their separate identities under the name Kailan.From that date the new Administration became the dominatingmining power in the whole of China.“It is a story where Mr. Chang Yen Mow stands out as a foolishChinaman. It is a story where Mr. Hoover stands out as a cle-ver foreigner. It is remarkable that such a young man shouldhave been able to secure such a good bargain as the control ofthe Kaiping coal-fields. Of course he was lucky. “The year 1912 was the year of anarchy and revolution, the yearwhen Manchu rule was thrown upon the scrap-heap. The Lan-chow Mining Company's business came under foreign controlthat year. “The story of the Genesis of the Kailan Administration is rathera peculiar one. From a Chinese point of view, it is not altogethera pleasant one. Even now there are Chinese who try not to thinkof it. In it they see a reflection of their country's undermining,and they do not see the industrial advantages which a prospe-rous, well-equipped mining concern is bound to bring in itswake. “Like the jovial surgeon returning to look up a patient whose leghe has taken off, the Administration's ruler now says to China," Was it not good for you ? " But China takes time to considerbefore she answers the question. She sees in the new amal-gamation a thorough exploitation of coal, but she sees her ide-als are broken. She sees the control of the Kaiping coal-fieldsgone from her hand for ever. When, therefore, her operatorfriend repeats his question, "Was it not good for you ? " shesadly shakes her head as she answers : " That may be, sir, thatmay be, but it still hurts."

Earl WINTERTON asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he has re-

ceived any information as to the effect of the recent military operations in China upon

the property of the Kailan Mining Administration; and, in particular, whether there has

been any interference with the railway built by this British company for their use bet-

ween Tongshan and Chinwangtao?

Sir J. SIMON I have no information of any damage to the property of the Kailan Mi-

ning Administration. As regards the second part of the question, my understanding is

that the railway was not built by this company; it is a Chinese Government railway,

though built with British Capttal. Part of the second track of the railway was raised

some weeks ago for strategic reasons by the Chinese military authorities, and the rail-

way bridge over the Lwan river has Since been damaged.

Earl WINTERTON Is it not the fact that this railway is essential in order that the mines

may be carried on; and 1532 has not the mining company a very large share in the

railway?

Sir J. SIMON I cannot answer that question with precision, but I have no doubt that

the railway is essential to the mining company.

HOUSE OF COMMONS DEBATE, 1933

58

58a“In order to understand these feelings we must wanderback some thirty-four years over the hills of time ... Chi-nese coal-mines were only scratched on the outcrop,they were not treated scientifically, for the very simple re-ason that the yellow men of the day had no facilities formodern mining. Their commercial instincts told themrightly enough that "black stones" had some calorificvalue. “Accordingly they searched for them, found them allalong the Kaiping Coastal District, and dug up as manyof them as they could with the miserable appliances attheir disposal. Beyond that they merely sat down satisfiedmore or less at having accomplished so much, but who-lely unaware of the huge unsuspected potentiality whichlay like the genii of the story-books, bound and black andmighty beneath their miserable mortal feet. “The new Chinese Engineering and Mining Companyexisted for over ten years in direct opposition to Chinesegovernment circles and to the wishes of the Kaiping localpeople. Major Nathan publicly stated this fact in his after-dinner speech at the Kailan Mining Administration's in-augural banquet which was held at the Astor House Hotelin Tientsin in 1912. “It is extraordinary how wonderfully tenacious the Chi-nese as a nation are. When a foreigner has securedsome mining or other right which the Chinese Govern-ment considers should never have passed out of Chi-nese hands, no effort is spared by the officials and localgentry to harass and annoy the intruder. There is nothingextraordinary in this feeling itself. The astonishing thing isthe pertinacity with which Chinese public opinion makesitself felt. “In course of time, as we have seen, the old Mining Com-pany passed into foreign hands under circumstances towhich the Chinese frankly objected. The latter felt theyhad lost an invaluable treasure. From their point of viewthey certainly had, but it was to benefit them later on.”

The soapstone that GW Fisk brought back from China, and that now belongs to his

granddaughter Jenny Roberts (mum),

and that once featured on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow.

It is not clear why GW Fisk left China in 1930, but with war brewing between China

and Japan, it was not a comfortable place to be. The article on the right from Austra-

lian newspaper The Age - May 19, 1933, mentions how the Kailan mine in Tongshan,

where GW Fisk was based until three years earlier, was siezed by the Japanese.

Below, the Kailan Mining Administration building, where GW Fisk worked for at least

some of his time in China, photgraphed around 1906.

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCCULTISM ANDPARAPSYCHOLOGY BY LEWIS SPENCE

CHINESE ECONOMIC STUDIES, M.E. SHARPE (1989)

LONDON GAZETTE

Although most of the foreigners working in China generally lived in fairly

isolated fashion from the country around them, George Fisk was very dif-

ferent. He had a huge interest in Chinese culture and language, and trans-

lated several English physics textbooks into Chinese. He was also the

author of a Chinese-English-French phrase book for the use of mining en-

gineers.

But his fascination for Chinese culture soon led to what would become so-

mething that interested him for the rest of his life. He was spellbound with

the examples of paranormal activity he saw in the Orient, and as early as

1910 (the year Muriel was born), Fisk joined the Society for Psychical Re-

search (SPR). While still maintaining his other jobs, he spent much of his

spare time exploring supernatu-

ral phenomena. In 1912, the SPR

membership lists “Fisk, Rev. Ge-orge, Tsingchowfu, Shantung,China”. By 1924, the ‘Reverend’

bit has most definitely been drop-

ped from his name, and he is

now just “Fisk, George W., c/oThe Kailan Mining Administration,Tientsin, N. China”.

Rosalind Heywood wrote an arti-

cle shortly after George Fisk’s

death, and in it she provides the

full text of a fairly autobiographi-

cal text that George himself had

written. It goes as follows:

“I was living in China at the timeof joining the S.P.R. and as thatwas a country of spooks and de-mons I ought to have had manyopportunities for original rese-arch. The Chinese had a theorythat the demonic fauna can onlytravel in straight lines, and thebuilder of the house I first lived inhad erected a ten foot demon-de-fence wall immediately in front ofthe main gate. It was effective, forI regret I had no firsthand oppor-tunity of way-laying spooks. “I remember I did initiate a fewcrude telepathy experiments.Some results seemed remarka-ble to me but I had not even thenbegun to appreciate the neces-sity for strict control. I had beenstruck by the ability many Chinese seemed to possess of orientating them-selves in respect to the points of the compass, even in complete dark-ness. I tested this by experimenting with some dozen of my students.“I had a revolving office-chair. The subject was seated in the chair in thecentre of a darkened room and blindfolded. This was done thoroughly anda sack was finally pulled over the head. He was then whirled round a num-ber of times in both directions. On coming to rest he had to point his fin-ger to the south. (Chinese always orientate themselves by the south). Withseveral subjects the number of exact successes was remarkable. As con-trols, I tried it on two or three Europeans, and they, as I anticipated, com-pletely failed. I should, of course, have followed it up by imposing anextraneous magnetic field, and now I much regret that I failed to do so. DoChinese share this possible faculty with dogs, cats—or pigeons? “I recall one other striking instance when after the 1914-18 war I was ac-

ting as labour superintendent in a coal mining company not far from Tient-sin. I made a practice of going underground myself to see the workingconditions of the miners at the coal face. “Tongshan mine is an old and deep mine and one day I visited a coal faceperhaps a mile or so from the main shaft. There was a single miner therehewing away with his pick in the dim light of an oil lamp. I stopped for achat. What was his name? How old was he, etc? Finally, where was hishome?“He did not answer in words. He laid down his pick and silently pointed inthe darkness. I had my compass with me and took a bearing of the direc-tion he was indicating.

“On further questioning I learnt that his homewas in a village near Tai-en in the adjacent pro-vince of Shantung, nearly a thousand milesaway. Back on the surface I examined a map ofNorth China. I found the old miner, in the dark-ness of the mine's inner workings, had pointedexactly to the direction of his home with a pos-sible error, so far as I could estimate, of notmore than three or four degrees. This was notjust a case of locating a definite point of thecompass. The man was quite illiterate; had pro-bably never seen a map, or if he had, certainlycould not have understood it. But somehow heknew the exact direction of his home. How? Andif he had had wings like an angel—or a pigeon—could he have flown from Tangshen straightback to his village? “Another lost opportunity for investigation wasinto the many stories of poltergeists I cameacross when chatting with my Chinese friends.Most followed the same pattern—yarns of mis-chievous sprites throwing about small articles inthe home, generally quite harmlessly and oftenexhibiting perverse streaks of humour. Had Iknown then of the Underground Water Theory, Icould probably have disposed of any abnormalelement in most of them. But one case, at least,was an unresolved puzzle. Some 30 miles fromthe pithead is a village I happened to visit oneday while engaged on a geological survey, loo-king for, in particular, any outcrops of limestone;for coal, in the Tongshan area, is always foundunder layers of limestone. Outside the entranceinto this village was a large and imposing pylonor memorial arch, probably centuries old, com-memorating some virtuous man or woman of thepast. I gave it special attention because thelarge stone blocks of which it was built were of

limestone, and I wondered where they had beenquarried. However, I found out nothing of im-portance.“About a year later I visited this village again. Iremembered the memorial arch but it had di-sappeared. Rather intrigued, I asked the innke-eper what had happened, but received onlyevasive replies. I instructed my Chinese assis-tant to make a few discreet enquiries while I re-examined the spot. I found several of the largeststones—probably weighing well over a ton—scattered around at over a hundred paces fromthe original site. My assistant reported that thevillagers said it had all happened one night,some months previously. They had heard no-thing, but next morning they found that thewhole structure had disintegrated, the stonesbeing scattered over a wide area.“The smaller stones they had collected andused for their own building repairs, but the hea-viest blocks remained where the 'poltergeist'had thrown them. Knowing the inherent inertiaof the Chinese peasant I find it hard to believethat they themselves had voluntarily performedthe demolition of a revered monument, but...”In 1930, and for unknown reasons, George Fisk

returned to England at the age of 48, and to the

best of my knowledge, never returned to China.

Among the many things he brought back with

him was an engraved soapstone, the signifi-

cance of which is a mystery. It now belongs to

mum, Jenny Badenoch, who in the 1980s, took

it to the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow, and was

amazed to learn that its value was £2000, and

probably a lot more than that by now.

Going back to George Fisk’s own memoirs, he

writes “in 1930 I left the Far East and returned toEngland, where, for the first time, I was able to

meet some of my fellow members of the S.P.R.and take a more active interest in its affairs. Iwas fortunate to come across a percipient whowas patient enough to submit to a lengthy se-ries of ΕSΡ trials, but my first introduction underreally strict conditions of control was in about1934 when I was asked by Mr G. N. M. Tyrrell toact as an alternative agent to himself in testswith Miss Johnson—first with Zener cards andthen with his improved ESP machine.“He was anxious to discover if her remarkablepowers would be manifest with an experimenterother than himself. That certainly proved to bethe case, though her successes were on a so-mewhat lower order with me than when workingwith Tyrrell.“Still her scores were of a significance suffi-ciently high to undermine my persistent linge-ring doubts as to the genuineness of ΕSΡphenomena. For the conversion of a sceptic likemyself is a long process—as Charles Richetonce said, 'to believe a new fact one must getused to it'—and it certainly was many years be-fore I crossed the Rubicon. Not that one’s per-sonal beliefs are of any importance whatsoever,except to oneself. I always dislike being asked,'Do you believe this or that?' It is the wrongquestion. What should be asked is, 'What is theevidence on the basis of which you ought to be-lieve—or doubt?”

Tientsin, pictured in 1926

59

In the meantime, as Donald West wrote, on return

to England, Fisk “joined up with a partner who wasan expert in springs. They produced, among otherinventions, the anglepoise lamp so popular today.”

Said partner would have been George Carwar-

dine, who is recognised as the creator of the de-

vice.

Carwardine was indeed an expert in springs, or

better put “a freelance design consultant spe-

cialising in vehicle suspension systems.”

According to Wikipedia, “while developing newconcepts for vehicle suspensions, he created amechanism which he recognised had applica-tions in other fields. “He particularly saw its benefits for a task lamp.Despite many claims to the contrary, his con-cept had nothing whatever to do with mimickingthe actions of the human arm. “The joints and spring tension allow the lamp tobe placed in a wide range of positions and re-main stationary without the need for clamping.“Carwardine applied for a patent for a lamp de-sign using the mechanism on 4 July 1932, andmanufactured the lamp himself in the works-hops of his own company, Cardine Accessories,in Bath, England. “The patent number was 404,615. He soonfound the interest and demand so great that heneeded a major expansion or partner and, on22 February 1934, entered into a licensingagreement with the Terry Spring Company in

Redditch, England. Terry's manufactured andmarketed the lamp, while Carwardine continuedto develop the concept, producing a number ofother versions and applications (for example,for supporting microphones). “The original four-spring design was made forworking environments, such as workshops anddoctors' and dentists' surgeries, but he also de-signed a three-spring version for use in thehome (patented on 10 February 1934, patentnumber 433,617).“The design was extensively copied and is stillin use today. “The arm has been employed in other deviceswhere it is necessary to hold an object statio-nary at a convenient point in space, notably thecopy holder for typists and in some applications,the computer display screen.”

However, I have found no evidence of any link

between George Fisk and Carwardine’s inven-

tion, or of George Fisk being involved in any of

Carwardine’s later projects.

I seem to remember mum saying how foolish it

was of her grandpa not to have patented the

design, but it seems that the design was paten-

ted, not by Fisk but by somebody who might

have been his partner.

Not long after that, the Second World War broke

out, and George Fisk spent the war years wor-

king at the Ministry of Aircraft Production.

As Wikipedia explains, “one of the specialisedsupply ministries set up by the British Govern-ment during World War II. As the name sug-gests, it was responsible for aircraft productionfor the British forces; primarily the Royal AirForce, but also the Fleet Air Arm.“The department was formed in 1940 by Wins-ton Churchill in response to the production pro-blems that winning the Battle of Britain posed.The first minister was Lord Beaverbrook and

under his control the Ministry presided over anenormous increase in British aircraft production.“The Ministry was characterised by, for its time,highly unorthodox methods of management,that included its initial location at Beaverbrook'sown home (Stornoway House). The personnelwas personally recruited from outside the Air Mi-nistry, interaction was informal, characterised bypersonal intervention, crisis management andapplication of will power to improve output. "Fewrecords were kept, the functions of most indivi-duals were left undefined and business wasconducted mainly over the telephone."

Once the war was over he was 57, and it was at

this point that he retired and gradually started

dedicating his life full-time to psychical research.

He had become a grandfather by this stage. His

daughter Muriel had remained in Britain all the

time, but travelled to China occasionally to visit

her parents. According to mum, when she left

school, Muriel went to art school, and then wor-

ked as a commercial artist, drawing the pictures

for advertisements etc (they didn't use photos in

those days). Then in 1936, Muriel, now 26, ma-

rried our grandfather, Kenneth Badenoch, in Su-

rrey.

The four parents on the day of Muriel Fisk’s wedding. Left to

right, we have Caroline Badenoch, George Fisk, Florence Fisk

and George Badenoch.

60

Three granddaughters followed, Susan (i.e. Aunty Sue), born in 1938, Jennifer (i.e. mum), born in 1942,

and Elizabeth (i.e. Aunty Mitty), born in 1947.

Mum has this picture, which shows her grandparents, Florence and George Fisk, with what is most probably Aunty Sue.

Going back to his research interests, and as

George himself wrote “came the war and dis-location. It was not until 1949 that I took upsystematic research again, when under thedirection of our Research Committee I begana series of group experiments.“Of the results some were encouraging or atleast puzzling, but most were either quite ne-gative or of marginal significance only. “Helped by Fraser Nicol and Donald West I in-troduced into my experiments a new techni-que of differential scoring with clock-cards,which enabled a value to be assessed for'near-misses' as well as for 'direct hits.' “My first guinea pigs were my grandchildrenwho took part in the 'game' on Sunday after-noons for many months. Susan was consis-tently successful with her scores. “Afterwards I discovered other good perci-pients, in particular Miss Symonds, who forseveral years was my star performer in a se-ries of varied tests. [Rosalind Heywood des-

cribes Symonds as “an old friend of G. W.

Fisk's and his best 'subject' in experimental

work”]. “Dr West collaborated with me in most of thework and it is to his guidance and advice thatany value there may be in our research isdue. “Thus it will be seen that almost the whole ofmy research, if my dilettante efforts may behonoured with such a fine name, has beenconcerned with the experimental quantitativeside of parapsychology.“Not that I now consider that it is more impor-tant than what may be termed the qualitativeside, such as the collection and analysis ofspontaneous cases of apparently psychichappenings, the examination of mediums, au-tomatists, alleged poltergeist phenomena,etc.”

From the Survival After Death website.

“Professor West's main career has lain inthe medical, legal and psychological studyof crime. He is the Director of the Instituteof Criminology, and Professor of ClinicalCriminology at Cambridge, where he is aFellow of Darwin College. He has writteneleven books on various aspects of thissubject and contributed to many specialised periodicals andsymposia.“Between 1947 and 1950, he served as Research Officer tothe Society for Psychical Research. Numerous SPR Journalarticles record his energetic careful work, including reportson Mass Observation's study of hallucinations; on the fablethat a well known medium had once disclosed to the HomeOffice the identity of Jack the Ripper; on some Proxy Sit-tings; and on a supposed case of xenoglossy in which twomediums claimed to have spoken in trance the languages oftheir Chinese and African 'spirit guides'. “At a subsequent meeting experts in both languages saidonly that the mediums had produced 'sounds no one couldunderstand'. One African tribal language was however unk-nown to them. West found a man who could speak it andorganised another séance at which the latter addressed themedium involved but elicited no more than 'long, voluble,unintelligible replies'. West commented that this did not ne-cessarily involve bad faith on the medium's part. “He also investigated a 'haunted' dance hall, spent a nightthere listening to a tap dripping, floors creaking, and doorsrattling in the wind; found a disused sewer which was 'a run-way for rats'; interviewed the three main witnesses to thehaunting; and found nothing necessarily paranormal. His re-port on the year's work in 1948 made some interesting sug-gestions for further study, notably of physiological changesin mediums, of extra sensory perception in animals, and offolklore.“Later, he contributed papers on ESP tests with psychotics(outlining his own experiments at three different hospitals,and surveying the results obtained by other psychiatrists)

DONALD JAMES WEST

and on a series of long distance clock-card guessing experiments on volun-teers, carried out with G. W. Fisk. Thisyielded evidence of what is called 'ex-perimenter effect' (the idea that sub-jects score more successfully with oneexperimenter than with another); atheme taken up again in West's SPRPresidential Address. Here, while dis-missing the idea that psi is 'an illusionfounded on a mixture of careless ex-periment, fraud and statistical arte-facts', he suggests that 'a high degreeof elusiveness is almost the only re-cognisable characteristic of ESP', andthat 'if resistance to progress may liepartly in our own unconscious reluc-tance to face the phenomena squa-rely' this should not be impossible toovercome.”

61

ASSORTED SNIPPETS FROM JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

BASIC RESEARCH IN PARAPSYCHOLOGYBY RAMAKRISHNA RAO

PARAPSYCHOLOGY AND THE NATURE OFLIFE ESCRITO BY JOHN L. RANDALL

THIRD EYE: MYTH OR A SCIENTIFICREALITY? RAI AND AGRAWAL (1995)

THE ELUSIVE SCIENCE: ORIGINS OFEXPERIMENTAL PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

BEYOND THE REACH OF SENSE BY ROSALIND HEYWOOD (1861)

PSYCHOLOGICAL ABSTRACTS (1955)

ESP: A PERSONAL MEMOIRBY ROSALIND HEYWOOD

Here, for instance, is a case in which a name which had simply been

forgotten was brought back by means of an associated idea. In 1960 I

asked the editor of the SPR Journal, Mr

Fisk, G. W., and MITCHELL, A. M. J. “ESP

tests with clock cards: A new technique

with differential scoring” (1953).

Fisk, G. W., and West, D. J. “ESP tests with

erotic symbols” (1955).

Mitchell, A.M.J. & Fisk, G.W. “The applica-

tion of differential scoring methods to PK

tests” (1953)

Fisk, G. W., and West, D. J. “Dice-casting

experiments with a single subject.” (1958).

Fisk, G. W., "Psychokinetic Experiments

with a Single Subject", (1957).

He is also the author of "How Primitive Is

ESP?" (Spring 1957), and "We Card-Gues-

sers” (Winter 1957), both published in Tomo-

rrow magazine

GEORGE W FISKACADEMIC

BIBLIOGRAPHY

George W Fisk, not long before he

died, with his beloved Ptolemy, the

cat that Mitty gave him after his wife

Florence died.

“Perhaps it was because I felt that quantitative experimental work wasmore likely to produce tangible results, or, possibly, my long sojourn in thespook-infested, credulous land of China had conditioned me into too pro-found a disbelief in the genuineness of such phenomena; a negative scep-tical attitude that only the experience of later years has modified.“Have there been any tangible results from my efforts? Probably only oneof any importance and one that is peculiar to myself—I have convincedmyself of the reality of some neglected and disputed faculties of man'smind; faculties apparently inexplainable in physical terms as we at pre-sent understand them. But that is only a personal reaction, valueless toothers. For the rest, I may have partially confirmed some of the findingsof other workers, e.g. that the ESP faculty is widely, if sparsely spread;that the mood of a percipient is an important factor in success; that somesort of sympathetic rapport between agent and percipient is of value ; andalso, although it cannot be considered proved, it appears likely that themood, personality—call it what you will— of the experimenter himself,apart from the agents and percipients employed, has some bearing onthe success or failure of the experiments performed. “Alas, that it should add up to so little. But then I am only like a man stro-king the fur of a cat and wondering at the faint crackle of the tiny bluesparks occasionally produced. He must leave to others the understandingof what that phenomenon may mean and also the development and har-nessing of that scarcely perceptible power into the dynamos and enginesthat will rock and illumine the world. Why should one believe that evolu-tion on this planet has reached its peak with the appearance, within thelast few seconds of geological time, of the mind of man?”

In his obituary, Donald West provides further, and less modest, insight into

George Fisk’s work. “He served on the Council and on various committeesfor many years, and was Editor of Proceedings and Journal for nine yearsfrom 1957. In 1958 he received from Duke, jointly with the present writer,the McDougall Award for distinguished work in parapsychology. He wasone of the Vice Presidents of the S.P.R. since 1963. Fisk's best known work in psychical research was done during his retire-ment, which began at the end of the last war. Nevertheless, he had beenquite active long before then. For instance, he participated in some of G.N. M. Tyrrell's pioneer ESP testing experiments, in which mechanical aids

were developed for selecting and presenting targets. He was a singularlyopen-minded and sympathetic observer, but also astute and critical. Henoticed and demonstrated to Tyrrell that when the target sequence wasdeficient in repetitions of the same symbol, a loophole was left for the sub-ject, who was shown the result of each guess, to produce a spuriousabove-chance score. She had merely to go on calling the same symboluntil a hit was scored and then to change her call to a different symbol. “Most of Fisk's published experiments took place in the decade beginning1950. He started by collecting and analysing a large body of data fromhome-testing ESP experiments (S.P.R. Journal 36, 369-70, 518-20). “The hope was to produce some new star subject, such as Basil Shac-kleton, but mass screening methods have never been particularly suc-cessful for that purpose. The Fisk data were more interesting for thecurious, small displacement effects to which large numbers of differentsubjects all appeared to contribute (S.P.R. Journal 37, 14-25).“Fisk returned briefly to the screening approach in 1956, when he colla-borated with Donald Michie and myself in a mass test using television.One successful subject did emerge from this, but his abilities proved ephe-meral (S.P.R. Journal 39, 113-133). Much better results were obtained when Fisk recruited his own subjectsand introduced as targets cards bearing a clock face with an hour handpointing to one or other of the twelve hour positions. In scoring the res-ponses, one could either count only completely correct calls, or one couldtake into account near misses by noting the number of hours each calldeviated from the target. The latter method of scoring proved to be gene-rally the more sensitive (S.P.R. Journal 37, 1-13). With this technique Fiskdiscovered a number of successful guessing subjects.“In 1953 we did some tests jointly. Fisk's subjects had to guess the orderof randomised clock cards posted to them in well-sealed packets. Unk-nown to them some of the packets contained cards randomised by me.The subjects, with one outstanding exception, gave significant results onFisk's cards but not on mine (S.P.R. Journal 37, 185-197). This strange re-sult has been the forerunner of much research on the role of the experi-menter in psi phenomena.“Whatever the magic necessary to elicit successful psi results, Fisk seemsto have possessed it.”

62

“In experiments with erotic symbols (S.P.R.Journal 38, 1-7), in experiments designed toshow the effect of mood on scores (S.P.R. Jour-nal 38, 320-329), and in experiments in dicethrowing aimed at concealed targets (S.P.R.Journal 39, 277-287), he was able to obtainhighly significant results from a variety of sub-jects under widely different conditions. “As one who was privileged to collaborate withhim in much of this work I know at least some ofthe reasons for his success. He was a patient,meticulous worker. No amount of labour in coun-ting, checking, dispatching targets, or writing let-ters to participants was ever too much for him.He just went about it all quietly, efficiently, wi-thout fuss. “Even more important, he was a consistently ge-nial, sympathetic, likeable person who put ever-yone at ease. Finally, he was a man of extrememodesty. He found the data he accumulatedfascinating and puzzling, but he had no setideas about an explanation, and no particularaxe to grind. Unlike those researchers whoguard their finds with jealous zeal, he welcomedanyone who would help him solve the riddle.”

A simple Google search reveals how much of

this research is still used as a reference today.

For example, in “The world of the paranormal:the next frontier” by Lawrence L. LeShan

(2004), the author describes the “famous Fisk-West experiment. Identical packs of cards – inall their known properties – were sent to a groupof widely scattered participants who attemptedto guess their order without opening them.Some of the cards were shuffled by Fisk, someby West. The card guessers had no means ofknowing who had shuffled each pack, nor thatthere were different shufflers. Packs shuffled byFisk were guessed at a much higher successrate � than were the cards shuffled by West.The cards were alike in their properties, differentin their histories.”

Basically, George Fisk seemed to think that he

had some kind of ESP ability that West did not.

In their 1976 report “Experimenter effects in pa-rapsychological research”, J. E. Kennedy and

Judith L. Taddonio look into this.

They write that “it is common knowledge thatEnglish investigators have been plagued withpsi-elicitation troubles. An exception to this wasG. W. Fisk, a retired businessman and inventorwho became active in parapsychological rese-arch in the 1950's. Fisk's parapsychological ca-reer was marked by the attainment ofconsistently significant results. His counterpartwas D. J. West, an experimenter who had beengenerally unsuccessful in his attempts to elicit

psi. Not surprisingly, West suggested a collabo-rative effort between himself and Fisk aimed atdiscerning differences in the data collected bythe two of them. Several studies were carriedout which, by and large, conformed to a singlepattern: Fisk's data yielded positive results andWest's data were close to chance.“The first West-Fisk study was a home test forclairvoyance (West & Fisk, 1953). Packets con-taining clock-card targets were mailed by Fiskto twenty subjects, who proceeded to recordtheir guesses for each clock card and return therecord sheet and unopened target packets tohim. (Clock cards consisted of a diagram of aclock face upon which the subjects made theirguesses by drawing an arrow from the center toone of twelve sectors. This allowed an analysisof the degree of missing involved when a sub-ject's response was not correct.) The clock- cardtargets had been generated from a table of ran-dom numbers, with each of the experimentersgenerating the targets for, and checking half of,the data.“The overall results of the study showed signifi-

cant hitting (p = .0011), all of which had beencontributed by Fisk's data (which were indepen-dently significant at the .00015 level). The re-sults from West's half of the data were atchance. There were several weaknesses in thestudy: some of the subjects were close friendsor relatives of Fisk, and the security involved in"mail-order" home testing of this type was ge-nerally not ideal. These weaknesses were off-set by the fact that the subjects did not knowthat two experimenters were involved or thateach of them would be preparing and checkinghalf of the clock-card material.”“Another Fisk-West study (Fisk & West, 1958)also relates to the question of psi experimentereffects. A blind PK experiment was conductedwhich required that a "special subject" matchdice targets displayed alternately in either Fis-k's or West's home. “The subject thought she was dealing only with

Fisk and mailed the score sheets directly to him.Fisk scored the sheets for his targets and mai-led the remainder to West for scoring. Fisk andWest were unaware of each other's targets, andearly results of the experiment showed positivedeviations for both experimenters' results. Wes-t's data declined to nonsignificant missing as thetest continued, although Fisk's maintained anoverall positive direction (p = .013). The diffe-rence between Fisk's and West's results wasmarginally significant (p = .05). “It is not clear, however, whether this differencemay be attributed solely to a psi experimentereffect, inasmuch as the subject was expectingall of the targets to be in Fisk's home. The non-significance of West's data could reflect a failureon the part of the subject to locate the targets.”

Mum, Jenny Badenoch (now Roberts), remem-

bers how “he was actually an amazingly cleverand knowledgeable man, but I do know that heused to stretch the truth a bit with the stories hetold us as children. We were totally gullible andbelieved implicitly all he told us. Years laterGranny told us that he made a lot of it up. Aschildren we used to go to tea with him and GGranny every Sunday. “They had a TV, which was a rarity in thosedays. So we were able to watch Muffin the Mule,and we used to watch 'The Brains Trust' with GGrandpa. He used to have at least one amazingfact for us each week, no doubt his imaginationhad run away with him again!! Then he wouldread through 'Punch' magazine with us and ex-plain the jokes to us. (Punch was a bit like a verytoned down Private Eye, out of print now I think).Then, of course he would do his experiments ontelepathy with us. “Again, I'm not sure how honest he was with hisresults. I don't really think he would have chea-ted though, his work was very important to him.He was the most incredible Grandpa to us girls,we all loved him to bits.”“I can remember him being on telly, talkingabout it. That would have been the BBC as thatwas the only channel then. I don't know if theywould hold records, or even old tapes of pro-grammes. I doubt it, it is so long ago. I remem-ber as well that as children he used us for hisresearch. He used to hold up special cards, sowe couldn't see them. They use cards with va-rious symbols on, and we had to guess whatthey were, whilst he tried to transfer the pictureto us, via his mind. We were all pretty useless,and after weeks of doing this every Sunday, Idon't think he was overly impressed with the re-sults.”

Mum might say that, but Donald West seemed

to be of the opinion that “his own grandchildrenwere among his most successful ESP subjects.”

1935 PHONE BOOK

1964 PHONE BOOK

Phone book entries for George William Fisk from 1935 right through to 1964

show that he was living at 6 Ditton Grange Close, Ditton Hill, not far from

Hampton Court Palace. The house was known as Apple Tree Cottage.

It is currently the residence of an interior designer called Carole Julia Box.

63

But in 1965, the Proceedings and Journal was sorry to an-

nounce that “Mr G. W. Fisk, who has been Editor since1957, has had to resign, on leaving the neighbourhood ofLondon to reside in Cornwall. He carries with him into reti-rement the best wishes of all his friends in this Society. Hetook up the appointment at a time when he had made hisname in psychical research as a resourceful experimenter,and as winner, with Dr D. J. West, of the Second WilliamMacDougall Award. Mr Fisk was also skilled in the field ofradio transmission; and he made a number of experimentsin this connection in China, the results of which, communi-cated to the Journal in 1935 (29, 35-6), are of considerableinterest in relation to the question whether a physical ex-planation of telepathy is possible. His duties as Editor tookup so much time that his own research work had to cease.During the period of his editorship the task of collecting sui-table material became more difficult. At the same time thecost of printing increased to a level which greatly restrictedthe amount of space which could be devoted to current con-troversies. In spite of these difficulties Mr Fisk maintainedthe standard of the Society's publications, and dealt wiselyand tactfully with the numerous questions which take up anEditor's time without any visible results.”

When George Fisk moved to Cornwall, the man who took

over his position was Alan Gauld. Gauld is still involved with

the society today. He recently wrote to me, and said that “Itook over from him in 1965 as the editor of the SPR's Jour-nal, and I remember visiting him during the transition to co-llect relevant materials at his pleasant home in Ditton Hill,Surrey. He was a round (that is, not exactly plump but notslim either!) friendly and cheerful person, much liked by hisSPR colleagues. He was generally called 'Fisky'! The livingSPR member who knew him best was probably DonaldWest who collaborated with him in some well-known expe-riments.”

As mum says. “Great Granny and Grandpa Fisk’s last home

was the little bungalow next to Dolphin Cottage, Porth-leven which is in the Kerrier District of Cornwall.” Dol-

phin Cottage was where his daughter (our grandmother)

Muriel, once lived with her husband, and our grandfa-

ther, Kenneth Badenoch.

On the final years of his life, Donald West wrote that “Inlater years his wife was invalided by a chronic, painfulcondition. He loyally and cheerfully stayed by her side,declining all invitations that might take him too far fromhome. Occasionally he was touched by the sadness thatcomes with increasing age. He feared mental deteriora-tion. Happily, he remained alert and active to the end.Indeed, he admitted to developing at a late age a sur-prising ability to recall details of events long past. He re-tained a keen interest in world affairs, sport [mum says

he was particularly passionate about cricket], and chess,

and loved to listen to classical music].”

Just a year before they moved to Cornwall, George Fisk

wrote the letter to mum (Jenny Badenoch) shown on this

page, in which he describes how Florence’s health was

deteriorating.

Porthleven,

Cornwall

64

Florence Fisk finally died in 1965, only a few months after

they had moved to Cornwall, and she is buried there.

Shortly after her death, George Fisk sent the letter shown

on this page to mum (Jenny Badenoch), about a year be-

fore she married dad.

Seven years later, in 1972, George Fisk died, at the age of

ninety.

According to Donald West, Muriel, our grandmother told

him after he died that “he went just as he had always hopedhe would, very quickly, and causing no trouble to anyone—as indeed he never did.”

Says mum, Jenny Badenoch (his granddaughter), “The onlyone of you that knew them was Dave, who was very scaredof Great Grandpa because he was so old. He adored youboys though. He had never had a son or a grandson � Hetold my Mum, that when he died she was to sit in his bun-galow and try to make contact with him. He would be doinghis best from the other side!! Mum did as she was told, butsadly got nothing.”

This obsession with being able to communicate from be-

yond the grave is also discussed by Rosalind Heywood. In

her article written shortly after George Fisk died, she wrote

that “Fisk was entirely convinced by the evidence for ESP.As to the reality of survival after death, though he seems tohave found some of the evidence impressive, he was lesssure. The following extracts from comments he wrote in hislast Christmas card to me may give some idea of his atti-tude. “Well, I'm sitting on the fence, but not at all uncomfortably.I've provided myself with a cushion—or at least a broade-ning of the top rail! I've decided that I know so very littleabout the meaning of Being, that, so far from answering,I'm not even capable of asking the great question. . . Whatis mind, time, space or matter? I just don't know. “Years, years ago I lectured (ye gods!) on physics, and gle-efully, on the Occam's razor principle, reduced all the com-plexity of matter to a simple fundamental particle—the

atom—that which is not divided! And today what has hap-pened? It has exploded into 90 or 100 'fundamentals,'and Occam's razor is blunt indeed! ... So I just sit quietlyon the fence to wait, and perhaps see.”

Rosalind Heywood continues by saying that “In view of aletter from Fisk to me from which I quote below, I feelbound to add the mental impressions which caused me toapproach Miss Symonds. But he would be the first to ad-vocate neutral open-mindedness as to their origins. “His son-in-law [this would be our grandfather, Ken] wroteto me on the day of his death (10.9.72), saying that hehad asked him to inform me of it at once. As soon as Ihad time I got out the file of his letters to me, which I hadkept on account of their wisdom and humour, and foundthe following, written in 1967, which I had quite forgot-ten.”

George Fisk’s letter to Heywood went “I suggest, if everyou have reason to think I may be trying to communicatewith you from the other side, you should bear in mind myintention would possibly be trying to communicate, not in-cidents relative to the S.P.R. in general or yourself in par-ticular, but relative to Miss Symonds ... about whom youyourself know very little indeed—though I believe youhave written to her.“Would it not be a good test if I were somehow able toimpress you with some little word or name which couldnot possibly have any interest for you, but might interesther? So IF (what a big IF!) at any time after Charon hasferried me across, you get something puzzling and mea-ningless associated with me, I suggest you pass it over toher to see if by any possible chance it rings a bell withher?... You may be sure I shall do my damnedest to breakthrough—if there is anything through which to break.”

Going back to Heywood, she then says “On reading thisletter I felt what I can only call a 'flash', as if from Fisk—'Don't bother about that nonsense'—which gave me a so-mewhat painful shock; but I rationalised it away by tellingmyself that no doubt, if it were he, in his new situationpriorities would appear very different.”

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“In any case, its vividness effectively discouraged me frommaking any effort to get a further 'message' from him. Ieven forgot the exact wording of the above letter, remem-bering only that he had written that he would try to getthrough something relative to Miss Symonds. “A day or two later came another 'flash', this time aboutMiss Symonds having to move, but I still did nothing aboutit at once, partly because of the discouraging 'nonsense'flash, partly because the sceptical side of my nature was ontop. But yesterday (17.9.72) it struck me as being unfair toa possible Fisk not to ask Miss Symonds if my impressionof her moving—which I had no conceivable reason to en-visage—was correct. I'd better write. Then came a flash,'No, telephone.' “Though embarrassed, I got her telephone number fromEnquiries and did so. I first told her of Fisk's letter saying hewould try to get through an item relative to her (I had stillforgotten his remark about a puzzling and meaningless onerelative to him) and I added that on re-reading the letterafter his death I had had the impression that he no longerwanted us to bother about 'that nonsense.' “This distressed her and made me realise how deeply shewas feeling his loss, so, in an effort to comfort her, I tried mylittle rationalisation about fresh priorities and then added,casually, 'Are you by any chance thinking of moving?' “Oh, yes,' she said, 'I'm trying desperately to find a friend toshare this large house with me, because if I can't I shallhave to move." The prospect seemed to be causing hermuch anxiety and she looked upon my enquiry as a directhit. “How should this be assessed? I recently found an old let-ter from Professor C. D. Broad, commenting with some hu-mour on the strictness of a judge in a drawing experiment,who had counted the guess, 'Flit Spray' for a target, 'FlitGun', as a miss. From that approach there is nothing hereat all. But Fisk was well aware of the devious ways in whichsubconscious material may have to rise to consciousness,whether or not it was due to ΕSP— he gave me an anec-dote illustrating this for my book, The Infinite Hive —andhe also knew my feeling that if I tried for ESP or even ex-pected it, I should get nothing. “Here then, on the hypothesis that my flashes were not dueto chance, vivid imagination or telepathy with a stranger,but to him, he could be said to have handled me very skil-fully with the rather crushing impression, 'Don't botherabout that nonsense,' got rid of my inhibitions and thus,perhaps, freed me to be receptive to the information thatMiss Symonds might be moving. It also, in an unexpectedway, fulfilled the requirement 'puzzling and meaningless' inrelation to him, for it seemed distressingly unlike him, andhurt me until I managed to rationalise it away. “It is easy for a judge to deny that Flit Spray is a hit on FlitGun. It is not easy for an experient to deny impressionswhich seem at the time to be simply what they purport tobe. It is even less easy when a number of such impressionshave a meaningful factor in common ; that, if acted upon—and to do so can feel embarrassing—they relieve some-one else's sorrow or difficulty. “Here again this was the case. On October 9, the day afterI wrote the original draft of these notes, a letter came fromMiss Symonds which said: 'Through you and our belovedmutual friend, the 'blinds' have gone up’.”

As for Donald West, George W Fisk’s old research collea-

gue, he was very much the younger of the two, and I was

most surprised to learn while looking into GW Fisk that he

was actually still alive and still actively involved in the so-

ciety. He wrote me the following e-mail on August 22, 2009:

“Dear Mr Roberts – I have read your biography of G.W. Fiskwith great interest. Since you have already read what Iwrote about him you have left me nothing much to add,save to confirm that my respect and affection for him re-mains unchanged after many years. “I regret losing touch in his final years when he was faraway in Cornwall and I was busy with a career in crimino-logy in Cambridge.“As for his extensive work on ESP and PK experiments, inwhich I was a collaborator, it now looks primitive in com-parison with modern work using computers. The procedu-res today are automated, so that scope for human

George William Fisk and Florence Fisk’s grave in Porthleven Churchyard

recording errors is eliminated and targetsare electronically registered in the compu-ter so sensory leakage of clues is also vir-tually eliminated. Sadly, as researchtechniques have become more sophistica-ted, and lone experimenters outside uni-versity departments are more or lessextinct, the elusiveness of ESP effects hasif anything increased. “Strictly repeatable experiments yieldingclear-cut effects not linked with a particularexperimenter do not exist, so the orthodoxscientific view remains that claims to para-normal information transfer are either frau-dulent or due to experimental error andexperimenter incompetence. “My own opinion about the Fisk experi-ments is that if Fisk was not a cheat - someof his results are otherwise inexplicable wi-thout a paranormal factor. Despite the ab-sence of modern equipment, hisprocedures and his checking systems werethorough. I am very resistant to the ideathat he was a cheat, but that opinion is notscientific evidence. “Your reference to his Baptist upbringingmakes me recall an amusing episode whenhe wanted to publish his experiments usingerotic targets. He insisted on attaching myname to them as I was a ‘medical’ person

(and presumably not suspect of having pu-rely prurient motives). Actually, the targetswere pictures taken from a popular Frenchmagazine and, on present day standards,would be far from pornographic.“I knew that he was extremely fond of andconcerned about his grandchildren. If hepleased them with fairy tales and exagge-rated ideas about their ESP powers, I doubtthat it had relevance to his serious rese-arch.“He was very far from lacking in critical po-wers. He observed early on that human at-tempts to produce random sequences‘out-of-the-head’ normally yield a deficiencyof repeats, with the consequence that un-less targets are chosen from random num-ber tables, or produced by mechanical orelectronic randomisation, guessers givenfeedback as to the success or failure ofeach guess, can produce extra-chancescores by simply changing their guess afterevery correct call. He felt, probably rightly,that this criticism of Tyrrell’s experimentswas not welcome among emotionally com-mitted believers.“Thanks for causing me to recall what wasan interesting and pleasant episode in mylife.“Sincerely – Donald West.”

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