Bertha Hughes was born in Chester, England at the beginning of the twentieth century. She experienced her first spirit contacts as a young girl and could see auras around people. Bertha was the middle child with an older and younger brother. After her younger brother, Cyril, died in 1917, Bertha claimed he appeared to her. Traumatized by his death, she found a medium to help her understand what she had seen. Bertha’s father died soon after, and she eventually trained to be a medium.

Bertha married Robert Harris in 1918.  Robert also developed mediumistic abilities, but his work was not recorded in history. In 1923, Ernest W. Oaten invited Bertha to travel across northern England to demonstrate her mediumship.  Oaten also introduced her to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. She toured with Conan Doyle under the watchful eye of Sir Oliver Lodge before Conan Doyle’s death in 1930. She was known for her in depth seances given  while she traveled across Great Britain.

Maurice Leonard wrote that Bertha, “…was well into her 80s and long past her glory days when she had been Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s personal medium; Sir Arthur lecturing on Spiritualism and she bringing back the dead to prove it….”

During the 1930s, Bertha visited London regularly and received a diploma from the Spiritualist National Union. She moved to London in 1940. Spiritualism spiked in popularity during both world wars with thousands of people desperate to contact their deceased loved ones. During WWII, Estelle Roberts, Helen Hughes, Bertha Harris and Ena Twigg were considered the most talented mediums.

Bertha received the nickname, Battling Bertha, because of her ability to defend her convictions. At a time in England when mediumship was illegal, she did not hesitate to defend her friend, Helen Duncan, who was imprisoned for practicing her beliefs. Bertha spent hours lobbying outside the Houses of Parliament, trying to get an amendment passed to correct the situation.

Reportedly, several important people sought Bertha’s advice during WWII, including Charles de Gaulle, King George of Greece, and Winston Churchill. Although Bertha undoubtedly met many prominent people, her influence on leaders at the time is undocumented. It’s possible she could have been consulted by de Gaulle, but Churchill’s movements were closely recorded, and she was not mentioned.

In 1949, Bertha became a minister with the Spiritualist National Union. She took a leading role in organizing the Union of Spiritualist Mediums (later the Institute of Spiritualist Medium) in 1953. She made her first tour of North America in 1973. Her talents took her across the globe. She even held a seance in a tarantula infested forest in Africa.

Bertha Harris suffered a stroke in 1979 and passed away in 1981, in London.

Sources:

Leonard, Maurice (2009) People from the Other Side: A History of Spiritualism. The History Press, UK

Leonard, Maurice (1974) Battling Bertha: The Story of Bertha Harris. Henry Regnery, Chicago

Williamson, Linda (2009) Finding the Spirit Within. Random House, UK

Price, Leslie “Bertha Harris Located” In Psypioneer Vol., 12 No. 1, Jan-Feb 2016.