Robert Thurston Hopkins (1884–1958) was a British writer and
ghost hunter.
Hopkins was born in
Bury St. Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton A ...
,
Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
in 1884.
Hopkins wrote biographical works on
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work.
...
and
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...
. He also wrote books on the English
countryside
In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, ...
.
Hopkins was a ghost hunter known for his books on
ghost
A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...
s. He described his experiences in his book ''Adventures with Phantoms'' (1946). He claimed to have encountered the ghost of a
hanged
Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging in ...
man in a woodland near
Burwash
Burwash, archaically known as Burghersh, is a rural village and civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, England. Situated in the High Weald of Sussex some 15 miles (24 km) inland from the port of Hastings, it is located five m ...
on two occasions in the 1930s.
[Adams, Paul. (2013). ''Extreme Hauntings: Britain's Most Terrifying Ghosts''. The History Press. pp. 130-131. ]
His son was Godfrey
Thurston Hopkins
Godfrey Thurston Hopkins (16 April 1913 – 27 October 2014), known as Thurston Hopkins, was a well-known British ''Picture Post'' photojournalist and a centenarian.
Education
Hopkins was born on 16 April 1913 in south London, son of Sybil (nà ...
(1913–2014), known as Thurston, well-known ''
Picture Post'' photojournalist.
Publications
*''Oscar Wilde: A Study of the Man and His Work'' (1913)
''War and the Weird''(1916)
''Kipling's Sussex''(1921)
''Rudyard Kipling, a Character Study: Life, Writings and Literary Landmarks''(1921)
''H. G. Wells: Personality, Character, Topography''(1922)
Thomas ''Hardy's Dorset''(1922)
*''Rudyard Kipling's World'' (1925)
*''The Kipling Country'' (1925)
*''The Literary Landmarks of Devon & Cornwall'' (1926)
*''Old English Mills and Inns'' (1927)
*''This London: Its Taverns, Haunts and Memories'' (1927)
*''London Pilgrimages'' (1928)
*''The Lure of London'' (1929)
*''In Search of English Windmills'' (1931)
*''Old Windmills of England'' (1931)
*''The Man Who Was Sussex'' (1933)
*''Life and death at the Old Bailey'' (1935)
*''Moated Houses of England'' (1935)
*''Adventures with Phantoms'' (1946)
*''The Heart of London'' (1951)
*''Ghosts Over England'' (1953)
*''The World's Strangest Ghost Stories'' (1955?)
*''Cavalcade of Ghosts'' (1956)
References
External links
*
*
1884 births
1958 deaths
English writers on paranormal topics
Parapsychologists
Writers from Bury St Edmunds
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