President of the British Occult Society

Seán Manchester was the last President of the British Occult Society. He was also the first to partly bring the British Occult Society from out beneath its dusty covers where it had languished for more than a century. Elected on 21 June 1967, he remained until the British Occult Society's dissolution on 8 August 1988. Hence Seán Manchester features prominently. The above image shows him during an exorcism attempt at Highgate Cemetery in 1970, as recorded in the Hornsey Journal, 28 August 1970, under the heading "Secret Exorcism At Highgate Tomb."

Dissolution, Death & Impostors

Anthony Hogg and the demonic mask behind which he hides.

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"BOS, you must be an impostor, as the actual BOS was dissolved in 1988." - Anthony Hogg (The Vampire Exhumed)

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"Is the group truly inactive if they're still posting? Must be an imposter!" - Anthony Hogg (unofficial THCVAS Facebook group created by Redmond McWilliams)

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It was us who supplied that particular piece of information now apparently being used against us by someone on the other side of the planet. We state on our blog, as well as elsewhere on the internet, that the British Occult Society was formally dissolved on 8 August 1988. Curiously or not, as the case may be, its members did not dissolve, save for those who are long since deceased of which there are unfortunately all too many.

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The British Occult Society as an organisation investigating occult and supernatural phenomena ceased to be an entity virtually quarter of a century ago. This blog is about the Britsih Occult Society by a remnant of its former members who are not "impostors" and resent being described as such.
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The BOS is "truly inactive." Those of us comprising some of its former members, however, are not.

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Seán Manchester, of course, is the author of The Vampire Exhumed, albeit a title unpublished but listed nonetheless, so whoever is claiming to represent The Vampire Exhumed must be an impostor!

Genesis of the British Occult Society

The Ghost Club Society is the world's oldest and most prestigious society devoted to the serious and impartial investigation, study and discussion of subjects not yet fully understood or accepted by science. The current president is Peter Underwood, pictured below, who was also a Life-Member of the British Occult Society until its dissolution.

1851 — The Ghost Club Society founded in Cambridge. Members include E W Benson, later Archbishop of Canterbury and Arthur Balfour, later Prime Minister.

1862 — The London Ghost Club. Members include the Hon A Gordon, Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick: a Canon of Westminster and the Registrar of Cambridge University.

1882-1936 — First revival. Members include Sir William Crookes, Sir William Barratt, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Oliver Lodge, W B Yeats and Harry Price.

1938-1947 — Second revival with Harry Price as Chairman. Members include Lord Amwell, Algernon Blackwood, Mrs K M (Mollie Goldney, Sir Ernest Jelf, K E Shelley QC, Sir Osbert Sitwell, Dr Paul Tabori and Peter Underwood FRSA.

1954-1993 — Third revival with Peter Underwood as President. Members include K E Shelley QC, Dr Christabel Nicholson, Dr Paul Tabori, Donald Campbell MBE, Peter Sellers, Dennis Wheatley, Dr George Owen, Lord Dowding, Ena Twigg and Sir Julian Huxley. Honorary Life Members include Dennis Bardens, Mrs Michael Bentine, Colonel John Blashord-Snell, Miss Sarah Miles, Miss Jilly Cooper, Dr A R G Owen, Miss Dulcie Gray, Sir Patrick Moore, Mr Uri Geller, and the Right Reverend Seán Manchester OSG. Peter Underwood is Life President and Colin Wilson is vice-President of the Ghost Club Society.

At times there was membership cross-fertilisation between the British Occult Society and the Ghost Club Society. In 1988 the British Occult Society was formally dissolved under the leadership of its final president, Bishop Seán Manchester, who had been elected on 21 June 1967.

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The British Occult Society was originally formed as an umbrella organisation circa 1860. Much of its activity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century is shrouded in mystery. The BOS came out of the closet, however, in the mid-twentieth century before finally disappearing in 1988. During that period it was presided over by Seán Manchester who placed emphasis on investigating the claims of the occult and the study and research of paranormal phenomena. Out of this history sprang the Vampire Research Society (formerly a specialist unit within the BOS), that was founded by the president of the British Occult Society who first appeared on British television on 13 March 1970. He is seen in the above photograph (reconstructing an exorcism he had performed in August 1970) from a transmission on the BBC in the autumn of 1970, seven months after his television debut.

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Highgate Cemetery

Highgate Cemetery — in the 1960s (click on image for video).

Highgate Cemetery — today (click on image for video).

Highgate Cemetery — then and now (click on image for video).

Cimitero di Highgate (Storia di un Vampiro)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01WBBwNa4CA

Seán Manchester — Cimitero di Highgate (Storia di un Vampiro)

A highly censored version of BBC television's 24 Hours programme has been uploaded onto YouTube, leaving a bandwagon-hopping individual who is seen contradicting everything he nowadays claims about his arrest on 17 August 1970 at Highgate Cemetery. The bulk of the programme was devoted to Seán Manchester who clearly the would-be interloper does not want viewers to see. Some of the expurgated material appears in the Italian language version of the Discovery Channel inclusion of the BBC's 1970 television footage of the 24 Hours programme first transmitted on 15 October 1970.

Click on the image above for the unedited version. Click on the images below for the edited version).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VcUq-ohXVY

Allan Farrow — BBC 24 Hours Oct 1970
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President of the British Occult Society — 13th March 1970

President of the British Occult Society — 15th October 1970

The Highgate Cemetery vampire case coverage starts approximately 3.13 minutes into this video.

These are some edited highlights from the BBC's coverage of the Highgate Vampire case in 1970 with footage shot at the headquarters of the investigatory team having been completely deleted. The narrator's mention to Farrow as "a former associate" of Seán Manchester merely refers to their meeting at the cemetery some months earlier (covered by the Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 March 1970) initiated by Farrow's letter to his local newspaper claiming three sightings. Seán Manchester met as many witnesses as he could and would ask them to show him where they had spotted their alleged supernatural encounter at Highgate Cemetery, but he would quickly distance himself from Farrow after realising the man was a publicity-seeking charlatan in search of a convenient bandwagon. Seán Manchester had already warned against Farrow's solitary activities and threats to invade the graveyard on a Thames Television programme and also in the Hampstead & Highgate Express, 13 March 1970. Their "association" had been little more than them meeting at the cemetery to establish what Farrow had seen. This turned out to be nothing more than an opportunity for Farrow to jump on a perceived bandwagon that he would exploit incessantly for the rest of his life.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5jSQWFZ99o