1945-1965

Department 18
 

In the Department 18 archive there are case studies reaching back to 1945 (a few of which can be found on this website) when the government of the day formed, as it was called then, the Department for Studies into Paranormal Activity. Each Head of the Department is hand-picked by a special Select Committee, and is usually a person with a strong interest in the type of case the department investigates.

            Probably the most famous of these incumbents was Alvar Liscombe who held office between 1953 and 1961. It was under his aegis that the department came to be known as Department 18, or D18. Liscombe was a capable administrator, but also an inspired investigator. He was instrumental in solving the Lavenham poltergeist case  in 1958 and the Hatfield hauntings the year after, along with many others.

            Liscombe was a larger than life character who was vocal in his belief that the paranormal was a reality, and was just another facet of the universe that we didn’t understand. His appearances on television, in the early days of that medium, were widely reported and elevated him to the status of what we would now call celebrity. In fact his profile became so high that Harold Macmillan's government saw it as a problem, and saw Liscombe himself as a subversive influence on what was then thought to be a very gullible public. Pressure was brought to bear in high places, notably from the House of Lords, and Liscombe was removed from his post.

            He went on to lecture throughout the world, filling lecture halls from Dublin to Denmark, until his disappearance in 1965. Rumours of a plot hatched somewhere in the Vatican, to assassinate him were never substantiated, and while the media of the day posited numerous theories, some plausible, some preposterous, his disappearance remains a mystery to this day.

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copyright M Impey 2008