The King’s Speech is grabbing the headlines, with the nationwide release in the UK of the superb movie [click here to see trailer] about King George VI and his speech therapist Lionel Logue, about which I have already written in my recent Blog.
Ever since I first wrote about Logue and the stammering monarch in my book Spirit Communication I’ve wondered what happened to the wooden chair which Logue presented to Lilian Bailey, the London trance medium, in gratitude for the spirit messages she conveyed from his dead wife, Myrtle.
It was in this chair that George VI sat when he visited Logue’s consulting rooms at Harley Street. Lilian Bailey always used it for seances, and it was in Logue’s chair that she sat when I visited her for a sitting in the late 1960s. The chair in which Logue (Geoffrey Rush) is pictured here is not the chair I am talking about, I hasten to add, as it is meant to be King Edward’s Chair (also known as the Coronation Chair) in Westminster Abbey on which British monarchs are crowned.
Coinciding with the movie is a book of the same title, The King’s Speech, written by Mark Logue (Lionel’s grandson) and Peter Conradi. I contacted Mark to make him aware of my Blog and he responded saying, “This is interesting stuff, especially the chair. Do you know its whereabouts now?”
The answer, I’m afraid, is that I don’t, but perhaps a reader of this Blog might help us shed light on where it is now. My guess is that when Lilian Bailey died in October 1971 the chair passed to Gordon Adams, her son-in-law. In that case, it is likely that on his death the chair passed to one of his two sons, whose names, I believe, were Nicholas and Clive. I met them both when they were young but have lost touch with them, though I believe one became a clergyman.
If you know of Gordon Adams’ sons’ whereabouts, do let me know. Lionel Logue, incidentally, was their godfather. He agreed to take on that responsibility in gratitude for their grandmother’s mediumship, and participated in their naming ceremony, conducted by the spirit guide Silver Birch through the mediumship of Maurice Barbanell.
Mark Logue tells me that his grandfather “was not very effusive in his diary or correspondence about this aspect [Spiritualism] of his beliefs”. He continues to research Lionel Logue’s life and “should I be allowed to make changes in the paperback edition, it might be nice to include some of this information”.
In my previous Blog, I quoted extensively from Death Is Her Life by W.F. Neech, a rare book which Mark Logue knew existed but had not been able to obtain. Having just seen the latest, excellent edition of Spirit of PN, the online independent Spiritualist newspaper, produced by Sue Farrow, I am reminded that Maurice Barbanell also covered the story of Lionel Logue in his excellent book This Is Spiritualism.
His account contains additional information that is worth recording here. It tells us, for example, that according to Hannen Swaffer – the famous journalist who introduced Logue anonymously to Lillian Bailey – the speech therapist’s photograph had not been published in any newspapers, so Bailey would not have recognised him.
Logue’s wife Myrtle controlled the entranced medum at his second sitting with her, which also took place at Swaffer’s London flat but at which he was not present as he had to attend a Guildhall banquet. Myrtle also told her grieving husband he must not consider taking his life: that would divide them rather than bring about the reunion he longed for.
At a later sitting with Lilian Bailey, after Logue had moved from a large house into a flat, he asked his dead wife what had happened to the bed linen. She replied that she would like him to use the yellow sheets and pillowcases, describing the box in which he would find them. Barbanell also tells us:
“It was Logue who volunteered to [Lilian Bailey] that Spiritualism had enabled him to understand his work of correcting speech defects, which occupied the major part of his life. He realised, since he had received his séance proofs, that he had been guided to leave Australia, when there was no apparent reason, and to seek a new career in Britain. Without knowing why, at the time, he had sold up his home. There were no seeming prospects in England, and it appeared to be madness….
“He told me that he made no secret of his Spiritualism. On several occasions he had described to King George VI his séances with Lillian Bailey, recounting the wonderful evidence he had received from his wife, and he had never met with hostility.”
Having now seen the movie, I am in no doubt that it will be a huge box office success and deserves awards for many of those involved, particularly actors Colin Firth (King George VI), Geoffrey Rush (Lionel Logue) and Helena Bonham Carter (Queen Elizabeth).
It’s a simple but moving account of an unlikely friendship between a man who was to become king and an unqualified therapist whose methods triumphed in helping his client overcome his speech impediment. The film, inevitably, fictionalises some events in this relationship for dramatic effect. For the full truth, I recommend the book based, in part, on Lionel Logue’s recently-discovered diaries: The King’s Speech by Mark Logue and Peter Conradi.
Imagine browsing through a friend’s library of books on psychical research and coming across a volume whose cover featured a voluptuous female, cloaked in purple, with one shoulder tantalisingly exposed and a hand resting lightly on a pregnant bulge. One’s reaction might well be that this is a Mills & Boon romantic novel that belongs in a different collection and to slip it quickly back on the shelf. Even a surreptitious delve between its covers would do little to dispel that initial conclusion. We should not judge a book by its cover, of course, but in the case of 
Earlier today I was honoured to participate in the launch of 
Notable among these is his account of a séance which he and Heather attended – before they married – with Welsh physical medium Alec Harris. The couple witnessed materialised spirit forms walking out of the curtained “cabinet” in which the entranced Harris was seated and being greeted by their loved ones who not only recognised them but conversed with them.
In my foreword to the book (I am pictured, left, with Eric and his editorial collaborator Susan Farrow), I make the point that some of the mediumistic events Eric shares with us are so extraordinary “that many readers may doubt his testimony, and even his sanity. But not those who know him.”
I promised in my last Blog, which was about the impressive evidence Lionel Logue received from psychic Lilian Bailey, to share more information about the famous London medium’s royal connections. Logue, as I explained, was the speech therapist to the future King of England, George VI, and he also received messages from dead royals which he passed to the king.
I must add that Buckingham Palace poured cold water on the story, after a newspaper picked it up, with a spokesperson commenting that it was a nice after-dinner story but totally untrue. My response is that, having known the medium concerned and her son-in-law I have no reason to disbelieve the story. Besides, I also know that The Queen Mother consulted society clairvoyant Tom Corbett, but that was also denied by the royal household.
I don’t need to be psychic to predict that a new book, The King’s Speech, is going to be a best-seller this Christmas, and a movie with the same title, to be released in the UK in early January, is destined to be a box office blockbuster. The film focuses on the fascinating story of how King George VI, father of Queen Elizabeth II, overcame a serious stammer with the help of a remarkable Australian speech therapist, 
The authors acknowledge Logue’s interest in Spiritualism with these dismissive words:
“Although otherwise a rational man, he became attracted to Spiritualism in the hope of making contact with her on the ‘other side’. As a result, he got in touch with Lilian Bailey, a ‘deep trance medium’. Over the years, Bailey had been consulted by a number of prominent figures and abroad – among them the Hollywood actresses Mary Pickford, Merle Oberon and Mae West, and Mackenzie King, the Canadian prime minister.”
According to William F. Neech in his biography of Lilian Bailey, Death Is Her Life, Logue told Swaffer (left) in 1946, “I am a broken man. I have lost my wife and I cannot go on.” He also revealed that he was so grief-stricken that he had even contemplated suicide. The journalist promised to help if he could. A few days later Swaffer, who was often referred to as “the Pope of Fleet Street”, met with Lilian Bailey at a Spiritualist circle and asked, “Can you come to my flat to help a man in grave trouble?”
In his introduction to the book, Mark Logue tells of the discovery of boxes of correspondence and scrapbooks in July 2010, when the book was close to completion. It would be fascinating to learn if they provide any further information about his sessions with Lilian Bailey.