Fifty Years a Medium – Chapter 11, 11/12 by Estelle Roberts

George Craze, President of the Merylebone Association, who had often presided for Doyle at public meetings, said he was.
“Take care of this medium,” Doyle urged him. “She is doing wonderful work. And you, Swaffer, watch our interests in the battle for truth that is now taking place. Great forces are opposing us, yet we must go forever forward.”

He continued in this vein for some time. Before taking his leave he sent a message to his wife with “all my love and affection” and one to his son Denis, “tell him to go forward in his work.”

On another occasion Sir Arthur returned and asked to speak to Shaw Desmond. Although Desmond did not doubt the genuineness of the communication he thought that nothing would be lost by asking the spirit speaker to prove his identity.
“If you are Conon Doyle,” he said, “tell me where we last met.”

Instantly the voice replied they had last met by accident in a doorway in Victoria Street, to which each had run to escape a sudden downpour of rain. Desmond recalled this incident.

Six days after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle left this life, a Spiritualist memorial service was held in the Royal Albert Hall which was packed from floor to ceiling. Many of those present hoped that Sir Arthur would dramatically come back and thus fulfil a promise he had made. He did return at this huge gathering, but not in the sensational manner hoped for by his audience.

Lady Doyle sat in the center of the platform. By her side there was a chair deliberately left empty as a symbol of his physical absence but an indication of his hoped for spirit presence. All around was a great concourse of spirit people anxious to communicate with their friends.

For half an hour, by means of clairvoyance, I relayed their messages to individuals among the mass of people in the hall. But there was no sign of Sir Arthur. I kept looking about me, hoping he would appear. It was not until the audience stood for two minutes’ silence as a tribute to him, that I suddenly became aware he was standing beside me.

With this realization I became momentarily flustered. He saw it at once and quickly calmed me. “Carry on with your work. Go on, child,” he said reassuringly. Then he went and sat in the “empty” chair by his wife.