The Empty Chair: Conan Doyle's Spiritualist Memorial at the Royal Albert Hall

Arthur Conan Doyle spent his last years as the most famous champion of spiritualism in Britain. He had feuded publicly with Harry Houdini over mediums, and written letters defending them against the investigator Harry Price. He died on Monday 7 July 1930. Six days later, his believers gathered to say goodbye in the way that made sense to them.

Sunday evening, 13 July 1930. The Royal Albert Hall. Counts of the crowd vary, from at least 6,000 in Daniel Stashower's biography to 8,000 in the Daily Mirror and 10,000 in later retellings. The hall was packed beyond capacity. Hundreds were turned away.

On the platform sat the family. Lady Jean Conan Doyle, the sons Denis and Adrian, the daughters Mary and Jean. On the widow's right stood an empty chair. A label on it read "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle." George Craze presided. A message from Sir Oliver Lodge was read out, and the Rev. G. Vale Owen, the Rev. C. Drayton Thomas, H. E. Hunt and Ernest Oaten spoke.

Then the medium Estelle Roberts took her turn. She was 41. "There are vast numbers of spirits here with us," she said. "They are pushing me like anything." For about half an hour she relayed messages to people scattered through the hall. The crowd grew restless. Then she stopped. "He's here!" A pause. "He's wearing evening clothes."

Roberts later said she had first seen him during the two minutes' silence. Now he was back. "He walked across the platform and sat in the empty chair." He stood behind her, she said, encouraging her as she worked, and she recognised "that fine, clear voice of his, which could not be mistaken." Time magazine reported that her eyes moved "as though accompanying a person approaching." The Sphere put it plainly. One psychic friend "clearly saw Sir Arthur pass to his chair."

Roberts turned to Lady Conan Doyle. "Sir Arthur tells me that one of you went into the hut this morning. Is that correct?" The widow said yes. "I have a message for you." As Roberts whispered it, the great organ struck up and drowned her out.

Lady Conan Doyle jumped to her feet, smiling and beaming. "I am perfectly convinced that the message is from my husband," she said. "It is a happy message, one that is cheering and encouraging." Roberts told reporters it was "a perfectly happy message." Neither woman ever revealed it.

Only one person in that vast hall claimed to see anything. The press photographs show an empty chair. No one else heard the message. The one checkable detail, a visit to the hut on the family's Crowborough estate, was confirmed only by the family, and sceptics point out that a close spiritualist circle could have known it. The medium and the family claimed success. Others sided with a sceptical reporter.

Roberts herself refused to be tested by the Society for Psychical Research or any scientist. Her spirit guide, Red Cloud, made false predictions, including that the Second World War would not happen. Melvin Harris suggested that photographs of Red Cloud showed Roberts herself in a feathered war bonnet.

No formal investigation ever followed. The press were the only outside observers. Yet the empty chair became one of the most retold moments in the history of spiritualism, revived in Stashower's Teller of Tales, on Lit Hub and CrimeReads, and on the Royal Albert Hall's own pages. Whether Conan Doyle really kept his seat that night remains a matter of faith.