Grief, Ghosts and the Search for Summerland

Dr Alice Vernon examines how spiritualism helped bereaved families come to terms with the trauma of the First World War.

The First World War caused bereavement on an unprecedented scale. Over 800,000 British military personnel died as a result of the conflict. Among them was Raymond Lodge, a young soldier whose father, physicist Sir Oliver Lodge, sought to contact his ghost via a spiritualist medium.

The book Sir Oliver later wrote about his séances with Raymond caused a phenomenon in which families sought out the ghosts of their loved ones. The notion of Summerland, a secular utopian afterlife, was developed through some of these séances and described in numerous books. These texts provide a fascinating image of a society shaped by tragedy. 

Where soldiers often met a gruesome and traumatic death hundreds of miles from home, Summerland allowed families to think of them continuing their lives in their prime, in luxury and comfort.

This talk will examine Sir Oliver Lodge’s 'Raymond 'in relation to similar spiritualist texts of the period to better understand why so many people turned to the notion of ghosts to soothe their grief.

About the speaker

Dr Alice Vernon is Lecturer in Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University, where she researches ghost stories, troubled sleep and the horror genre. Her most recent book, 'Ghosted' (2025), explored the social history of ghost-hunting.