The Second World War was not just a period of bloody slaughter and death. It was accompanied by a massive spike in reports of supernatural events across Europe and the United Kingdom. Many experts of the paranormal believe that the violence of the disastrous European conflict caused the supernatural world to become disturbed and increasingly volatile. In the case of London, the blitz in particular precipitated a huge rise in paranormal activity. The trauma of Hitler’s campaign against Londoners was considerable. In psychical terms, the ancient streets and buildings of London were pounded and destroyed night after night. In psychological terms, the blitz was a bit like a sustained series of 9/11s.
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Throughout the London Blitz a number of significant paranormal events were observed. One particularly celebrated ghost story involved dozens of witnesses, each of whom claimed to have seen the ghost of Elizabeth I riding through the streets of London near Westminster Abbey. Another tale related to the statue of Isambard Kingdom Brunel near King’s College London. The large, looming bronze monument was rumoured to curse and swear at the skies as bombs fell on London. As well as ghost manifestations, the blitz period is heavily associated with the occult and witchcraft. The case of Helen Duncan, the Blitz Witch, is well documented. Less well known is the story of teenager Anne Lister, who acquired the undesirable nickname, “the devil’s daughter”.
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Anne Lister was 16 years old when world war came to Europe for the second time. She was the daughter of a single mother, who worked in Covent Garden as a cleaner and tea lady. Throughout childhood Anne had suffered from sleep walking episodes, but these had never particularly worried her mother. However, when the war broke out, Anne’s sleep walking took on an entirely different dimension. On the night of 13th November 1940, Anne’s mother was awoken in the night by the sound of air raid sirens. She quickly went to fetch her daughter only to find her bed empty. Searching her small house, she was horrified to find Anne was no where to be seen. After several minutes deliberation, Anne’s mother left her home to take shelter in the relative safety of a near-by church cellar.
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The following day, after returning to her home, Anne’s mother was shocked to answer her door to military personnel, who stated they had found Anne two miles away, wandering barefoot through bombed out, burning streets. She was unharmed, but in a state of shock. Her nightdress and hair were singed and she was covered in dust and smoke. Anne’s mother was startled to hear that her daughter had left their home whilst sleep walking. This had never happened before, but it was set to happen again repeatedly. Anne soon gained notoriety for her sleep walking episodes. Between 1940 and 1941 she is said to appeared at six different bombed-outed streets, always whilst the air raid was taking place and always in a sleep-state. In each case she had walked at least half a mile from her home in order to reach the bombing. In one instance in 1941, she was found over 5 miles away, on the other side of London.
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