George Vale Owen (26 June 1869 – 9 March 1931) was a clergyman of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

and one of the best-known

spiritualist Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century The ''long nineteenth century'' i ...

s of the early twentieth century.George Vale Owen website
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Early life

Vale Owen was born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, England, the eldest son of George Owen, a chemist and druggist, and his wife Emma. He was educated at the Midland Institute and

Queen's College, Birmingham Queen's College was a medical school in central Birmingham, England, and a predecessor college of the University of Birmingham. It was founded by surgeon William Sands Cox in 1825 as The Birmingham Medical School, a residential college for medi ...

(a predecessor college of

Birmingham University , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

Career

In 1893 he was ordained by the

Bishop of Liverpool The Bishop of Liverpool is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Liverpool in the Province of York.''Crockford's Clerical Directory'', 100th edition, (2007), Church House Publishing. . The diocese stretches from Southport in the no ...

as curate in the parish of Seaforth, in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

. He became curate successively at Fairfield in 1895 and St Matthew's, Scotland Road, in 1897, both also in Liverpool. In 1900 he became

vicar A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pref ...

of Orford,

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

, where he created a new church, which was built in 1908, and worked there until 1922.

Spiritualism

The death of his mother in 1909 awoke his alleged psychic abilities and he claimed to began receiving psychic communication in 1913. He received 'messages' via a process known as

automatic writing Automatic writing, also called psychography, is a claimed psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. Practitioners engage in automatic writing by holding a writing instrument and allowing alleged spiri ...

, which adherents believe is writing performed without conscious thought or deliberation, typically by means of spontaneous free association or as a medium for alleged spirits or psychic forces. Given the impact on him of the information he received in this way, he converted to

Spiritualism Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spiritualism (when not lowercase) ...

. This was to incur the disapproval of his bishop,

Francis Chavasse Francis James Chavasse (27 September 1846 – 11 March 1928) was an Anglican priest and bishop and father of Captain Noel Chavasse. After serving in parishes in Preston, London, and Oxford, for eleven years from 1889 he was principal of the evan ...

. The 'messages' he received were developed into books. During the 1920s he authored a number of books about his new faith, his most notable being the five-volume set, ''Life Beyond the Veil''. The works were prefaced by

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for '' A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

(creator of

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

), who was a great supporter of Owen.

Lord Northcliffe Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (15 July 1865 – 14 August 1922), was a British newspaper and publishing magnate. As owner of the ''Daily Mail'' and the ''Daily Mirror'', he was an early developer of popular journal ...

, the foremost newspaper proprietor of the day, published summaries of the works of Owen in his journal, '' The Weekly Dispatch''. He said that he was impressed by the great sincerity and unshakeable conviction of Owen and that he clearly possessed great spiritual gifts. Through the publication of his work in the ''Dispatch'', Owen became famous throughout the United Kingdom.''Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology''. Thomson Gale; 5 Sub. edition (October 2000). Owen's spiritualist work resulted in the Church authorities forcing him out of his parish. This had a severe impact on him, including the loss of his primary source of income. In 1922, aged 53, he began actively promoting Spiritualism. He first went on a lecture tour in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. In England, after his return, he gave more than 150 lectures. He eventually became pastor of a Spiritualist congregation in London. However, his financial resources became severely depleted. To help him, Conan Doyle organised a collection for him. This resulted in a trust fund that provided financial support for Owen for the rest of his life.

Personal life

Owen married Rose Pemberton on 21 November 1892 at St James church in Handsworth; they had four children.

Death

In 1931 he fell seriously ill, exacerbated by the strain of his work as a medium. He died on 9 March of that year, aged 61.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Owen, George Vale 1869 births 1931 deaths English spiritual mediums Alumni of the University of Birmingham Clergy from Birmingham, West Midlands 20th-century English Anglican priests