The Ghost Photograph of the Brown Lady of Raynham

In September 1936, Lady Townshend commissioned professional photographer Mr Indre Shira to take a series of pictures of Raynham Hall. On the afternoon of September 19, his assistant Mr Provand was wielding the camera while Mr Shira was standing behind him, looking at the splendid staircase. Provand took a picture and was resetting the camera and flash equipment, when Shira saw on the stairs “a vapoury form gradually assuming the appearance of a woman”. She was draped and veiled in some diaphanous material and glided down the staircase with floating steps.

Shira told his assistant to aim his camera and get a shot quickly. Mr Provand had not seen the apparition and wondered what got his companion so excited, but he aimed at the spot and took the picture. After the flash the spectre disappeared and Provand asked Shira what all the fuss was about. “I saw a ghost descending the staircase,” Shira said. Provand thought it must have been an optical illusion, maybe the effect of the flash that came with the first picture, or someone playing a mirror trick from the gallery above.

Shira bet five pounds that the phantom would appear on the plate… and he won his bet.

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A Countrylife Controversy

The picture was reproduced in the magazine Countrylife (December 16, 1936) and immediately aroused considerable controversy. Although the spectre appeared only in outline, as a bride in white, enveloped in a veil, the apparition became world famous as The Brown Lady of Raynham. Experts examined the plate and agreed there was no fake about it. Some suggested the spirit photograph had been caused by a freaky light or a flaw in the negative.

The photograph has been reproduced in numerous books and articles, on television and websites, as photographic proof of the existence of ghosts. But, as Alan Murdie pointed out in his ForteanTimes article The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall, there also could be a more mundane explanation for it. A record of the Society for Psychical Research, for instance, raised some questions about the picture. The file consisted of notes and documents compiled by the SPR researcher Mr C.V.C. Herbert, his colleague of the International Institute for Psychical Research Harry Price and the American psychoanalyst Dr Nandor Fodor.