Felicia Rudolphina Scatcherd

Who was Felicia Rudolphina Scatcherd?

Felicia Rudolphina Scatcherd was a journalist and spiritualist.

Felicia Scatcherd was born to Watson Scatcherd and Emily Frances Crofton. She lived with her parents in London until her mother's death in 1901.

Before her death, Scatcherd's mother had introduced the young woman to William Thomas Stead, editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, who assisted Scatcherd in starting her career.

Scatcherd was the editor of the Psychic Review as well as a lecturer in support of mediums. She was extremely interested in and frequently practiced spirit photography. Scatcherd later gave Sir Arthur Conan Doyle the means to obtain the notorious photographs of the Cottingley Fairies.

Scatcherd lived with Platon Soterios Drakoulès and his wife for many years and she assisted him in lobbying the Committee of Union and Progress to form an alliance with the British.

In 1914 she released the book A Wise Man from the East which detailed her efforts to spread the Baha'i faith in Turkey.

From 1916 to 1919 Scatcherd was the editor of the Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review. In the 1920s she was a member of the council of the East India Association.

Scatcherd died of breast cancer in London on March 12, 1927.