Georgiana Elizabeth Eagle was born in London in 1834 to Jane and George Barnard Eagle. George Eagle was an illusionist and magician who held several stage names, including Barnardo, Napoleon of Wizards and The Royal Wizard of the South. He performed at county fairs and small theaters.

While growing up with a showman, it is not surprising that Georgiana became interested in her father’s profession. By 1841, her The Mysterious Lady second-sight act was being promoted. She was only seven years old at the time. She was advertised as a clairvoyant almost a decade before the Fox Sisters reported their encounter with the rapping spirit. She performed with her father until he died onstage in 1858. He left all his tricks and equipment to Georgiana.

Georgiana might have passed into obscurity if it had not been for an inscription found on a pocket watch known as Vicky’s Ticker. The watch bears an inscription, apparently from Queen Victoria: “Presented by Her Majesty to Miss Georgiana Eagle for her Meritorious and Extraordinary Clairvoyance produced at Osborn House, Isle of Wight, July 15th, 1846”

It was rumored that Georgiana performed a séance for Queen Victoria, and later acted as a medium for her dead husband Prince Albert, but in the inscription the queen’s place of residence, Osbourne, is misspelled and Albert hadn’t died yet. The watch was displayed at the College of Psychic Studies in London, mounted on a plaque. In addition to the above inscription, the plaque also said, “Presented by W. T. Stead to Mrs. Etta Wriedt through whose mediumship Queen Victoria’s direct voice was heard in London in July 1911.”

When Georgiana Eagle allegedly performed for Queen Victoria, clairvoyance was regarded as a physical, not spiritual, ability. Victoria and Prince Albert would have been living at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, but Spiritualism had yet to be founded. Some said the watch was a fake, probably used to promote Georgiana’s abilities. Fred Archer suggested in 1953 that Georgiana died before receiving the watch, and it was passed on to W.T. Stead. But Georgiana was still very much alive.

Whether the watch was a fake or not, Georgiana continued with a solo career after her father’s death. She married Charles Card, a reporter and photographer in 1858. An advertisement appeared in The Times on December 23^rd, 1859: “Private Parties Attended for Christmas Holidays. Miss Georgiana Eagle, the celebrated enchantress, will give her wonderful, amusing and scientific entertainment in Magic (with splendid apparatus). Electro biology and mesmerism in London and the vicinity. Address: 176 Tottenham Court Road.”

By 1867, Georgiana was a widow. She married Alfred Gilliland, a professor of music, in area of what is now South Africa. She appeared in public again in the early 1870s as Madame Gilliland Card. She performed at the Royal Agricultural Hall in London, the Athenaeum in Bristol, and at the Corn Exchange in Cheltenham along with her husband as the supporting musical act. Georgiana married her third husband, Harold Pashley, in 1888. She died in 1911 at the age of seventy-six years.

As to the authenticity of the watch, Stephen Butt said there was “no documentary evidence yet of the Eagles’ performance at Osborne House, their tour `circuit’ was based on the south of England, a geographical area which would obviously have included the Isle of Wight.” W.T. Stead’s daughter married into the Gilliland family which may explain how the watch was passed on to Stead. It is possible that Etta Wriedt became the owner of the watch and returned it to England through Canadian Prime Minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King, who often attended her séances.

Georgiana never claimed to be a Spiritualist and called herself an illusionist and not a medium. In 1846, one of her father’s advertisements scorned mediums, promising that Georgina would unmask their fraud. Stephen Butt concluded that it was “improbable that Georgiana would have appeared before Queen Victoria in the role of a spiritualist clairvoyant.”

Archer, Fred. “Queen Victoria’s Séance” Psychic News, Issue 1094, London, 23 May 1953.

Butt, Stephen, “Georgiana Eagle – Queen Victoria’s Clairvoyant Revealed.” PSYPIONEER Volume 1, No 15 – 16 July / August 2005.

Mathiesen, Robert (2001) The Unseen Worlds of Emma Hardinge Britten: Some Chapters in the History of Western Occultism, in Theosophical History Occasional Papers, Vol IX, (Pasadena, California, The Theosophical Society.

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