Elliott O'Donnell (27 February 1872 – 8 May 1965) was an English author known primarily for his books about ghosts. He claimed to have seen a ghost, described as an elemental figure covered with spots, when he was five years old. He also claimed to have been
strangled
Strangling is compression of the neck that may lead to unconsciousness or death by causing an increasingly hypoxic state in the brain. Fatal strangling typically occurs in cases of violence, accidents, and is one of two main ways that hanging ...
by a mysterious phantom in
Dublin (however, no permanent effect would seem to have been suffered).
Career
He was born in England in
Clifton
Clifton may refer to:
People
*Clifton (surname)
*Clifton (given name)
Places
Australia
* Clifton, Queensland, a town
**Shire of Clifton
*Clifton, New South Wales, a suburb of Wollongong
*Clifton, Western Australia
Canada
*Clifton, Nova Scotia ...
(near Bristol), the son of Irishman Reverend Henry O'Donnell (1827–1873) and Englishwoman Elizabeth Mousley (née Harrison); he had three older siblings, Henry O'Donnell, Helena O'Donnell and Petronella O'Donnell.
[Elliott O'Donnell in the 1911 England Census]
– Ancestry.com
Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites.
In November 2018, ...
– pay to view After the birth of his fourth child the Rev. Henry O'Donnell travelled to Abyssinia while awaiting preferment to a new parish. Here he was said to have been attacked by a gang and robbed and murdered. Elliott O'Donnell claimed descent from Irish chieftains of ancient times, including Niall of the Nine Hostages
[ John Wilson Foster, ''Irish Novels 1890–1940: New Bearings in Culture and Fiction''. Oxford University Press, 2008
(p. 367-71)] and Red Hugh, who fought the English in the sixteenth century. O'Donnell was educated at
Clifton College in Bristol, England, and later at Queen's Service Academy, Dublin, Ireland.
Intending originally to take entry exams at the Royal Military Academy at
Sandhurst in order to join the
Royal Irish Constabulary