Feilding, (Francis) (Henry) Everard
(18671936)
A barrister and pioneer psychical researcher, Feilding attended
Oxford and received a degree in law. His interest in
psychic phenomena was sparked by a visit to Lourdes in 1892
and deepened by the death of his sister three years later. The
evidence for survival of death presented by his Catholic faith
proved insufficient in the face of his personal loss.
Feilding became an early member of the Society for Psychical
Research (SPR) in London and served as its secretary from
1903 to 1920. He investigated the phenomena of Florence
Cook, the famous materialization medium also investigated by
Sir William Crookes. Feilding also reported on the phenomena
of the Italian medium Eusapia Palladino with whom he sat
in Naples in 1908. His reports on the sittings with Palladino
were among the most important of the various articles he contributed
to both the Proceedings and the Journal of the SPR.
In 1919 Feilding married the Polish medium Stanislawa
Tomczyk. He gradually withdrew as an active member of the
SPR but followed with interest the investigations of Rudi and
Willi Schneider and Mina Crandon (Margery). He died February
8, 1936.
Sources
Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger. The Encyclopedia of
Parapsychology and Psychical Research. New York Paragon
House, 1991.
Feilding, F. E. Sittings with Eusapia Palladino and Other
Studies. New York University Books, 1963.
Feilding, F. E., W. W. Baggally, and Hereward Carrington.
Report on a Series of Sittings with Eusapia Palladino. Proceedings
of the Society for Psychical Research 23, no. 59 (1909);
25, no. 62 (1911).
Pleasants, Helene, ed. Biographical Dictionary of Parapsychology.
New York Helix Press, 1964.
