A GHOST IN GREENWICH COLLEGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11056, 6 May 1899, Page 2 (Supplement)

A GHOST IN GREENWICH COLLEGE.

PHANTOM NURSE WALKS THE WARDS. Great difficulty has recently been experienced in getting nurses to take night duty in the hospital attached to Greenwich College, owing to the nocturnal visitations of a phantom nurse in the wards and corridors. About a dozen nurses in succession have tendered their resignations, after staying from two to six weeks, until the sense or the place being haunted completely unstrung their nerves, rendering them unfit for the duty of tending the sick. One of these nurses, who is now living at home, gave the following account of her experience" It was about midnight, and I was sitting in the centre of the room, expecting every moment to have a cup of tea brought up to me. A nurse, as it seemed to me, entered the room a few steps, and then went back again without speaking. 1 could not understand what it meant, and ran along the passage after her. There was nobody to be seen, "and 1 was so puzzled that I could hardly summon courage to return to my post. No tea was brought to 1110 that night, and in the morning everyone denied having come into the ward during the night. Then I learned that several nurses had left the institution seared by the same apparition that I had seen. It was impossible for mo to take duty another night." The report speedily got abroad that the college was haunted, and local Spiritualists, of whom there are many in the Royal suburb, turned their attention to the solution of the mystery. It was then found that an old dwelling immediately behind the college was quite a rendezvous of ghosts —unaccountable noises terrified the occupants nightly, with sundry violent accompaniments, such as ornaments falling from the shelves, and a bookcase being dislodged from the wall. The Spiritualists arranged t(> hold a seance, and hired a medium from Kensington. An actress, who was playing Trilby in a touring company, also came for an object lesson in hypnotism. There were five ladies and four gentlemen, including a clergyman, who solemnised the proceedings with prayer. Presently the medium becamo entranced, and the spirit which possessed him directed that all the company should descend to the basement. The sequel was very extraordinary. Everybody promptly fell into a trance, and an involuntary free fight ensued, the ladies scratching each other's faces and tearing out each other's hair. For several of the company that was their last Spiritualistic entertainment, and the clergyman declines to speak of the affary. What relation exists between these obstreperous spirits and the phantom nurse is, of course, not known ; though very lately other mediums have been requisitioned from Brighton and other places by the more persistent and courageous of the Spiritualists.