Fairy Investigation Society

Spiritualism in the Western world began in the United States in 1848 and moved its way across the Atlantic to Britain in 1852. Spiritualism does not have a central organization, instead it is most like an ideology in which individualism is highly prized through religion.[3] Spiritualists believe in the preservation of the soul after death and that the soul continues to exist in the physical world. The rise of spiritualism influenced an interest in the West with all things mystical from ghosts and seances, tarot (Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn), to fairies. The disillusionment of World War One continued to fuel the rise of spiritualism which correlates to the establishment and growth of the Fairy Investigation Society.

During World War One two young cousins from Cottingley, England, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, took photographs of themselves with cardboard cutouts of fairies in their garden. Elsie's mother had shared the photos at a Bradford Theosophical Society meeting on nature spirits. They then gained the attention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes series and notable member of the Fairy Investigation Society. He published the photos along with an article in the 1920 Christmas edition of the Strand Magazine.[4] The photos made international headlines, and the Fairy Investigation Society acquired momentum toward its creation.

Captain Sir Quentin C.A. Craufurd, MBE, (1875-1957), co-founded the Fairy Investigation Society. Crauford was from an aristocratic background, a member of the Craufurd Baronets, and a naval officer. While in the navy, he appeared to have picked up a fascination with wireless telephone communication. Indeed, he was authorised by the Admiralty to create an experimental radio station to broadcast to the fleet in Chatham from HMS Andromeda (and this was the first wireless broadcast of music and speech for the purpose of entertainment in Britain). In the 1920s, he began to experiment with wireless technology to contact the spirit world, and became very well known in spiritualist circles. In founding the Fairy Investigation Society, his role was to deliver the scientific means of collecting evidence, via his telephone technology, while Barnard Sleigh would deliver the psychic means of contacting fairies. Crauford also experimented with other technologies in his attempt to contact fairies, including automatic writing and psychic photography.[5][11]

Marjorie T. Johnson was a member of the Fairy Investigation Society in its later postwar iteration. She became acquainted with Craufurd in the 1940s, and in the 1950s she became the secretary of the Society, while Craufurd was the President. Johnson transcribed many of the Society's collected reports on fairy sightings into a volume called Seeing Fairies. These accounts collected by Johnson included her own experiences, anecdotes told to her, letters written to the Society, as well as “stray accounts that appeared in the media and on the radio.”[5] Johnson believed herself to be a “sensitive,” and claimed to have seen fairies, as well as other elementals, angels, and entities.[9]

Walt Disney, is also considered an important member of the Fairy Investigation Society. He was certainly a member through 1956 and 1957,[5] but sources speculate that he may have been interested in the group nearly 10 years earlier. In 1947, Disney visited Ireland to experience Irish history and gain experience on Irish Folklore for storyboard research. They visited "when he and his writers began exploring the idea of a film that would centre on ‘the little people’ in 1946" focusing on leprechauns and fairies.[12]