Sea Cadets defy ‘Herbert’ the poltergeist.
The Sea Cadet Corps at Thorne, near Doncaster, have no headquarters in what, 125 years ago, was the town’s new 65-room workhouse, because of “Herbert.” “Herbert” is an unknown force responsible for strange happening such as the sudden switching on of a radio system, the hurtling of a two-inch screw past an officer’s head, and creakings and banging noises from unoccupied rooms.
One evening Lieutenant J. Weir, the Corps’ administrative officer, was bending over a fireplace in one of the rooms of the rambling old building when a wooden screw whistled past his ear and dropped to the floor. He told my Doncaster colleague last night: “Some of the boys will not stay in the building by themselves. Normally, however, ‘Herbert’ – and I don’t know how he came to be given that name – does not worry us.”
Another evening Lieut.-Commander J. Parrell, RNVR, the commanding officer, was alone in the wardroom when a relay radio system, which was switched off, suddenly began to play. He went downstairs to investigate, the radio went silent and to his surprise he found he was the only person in the building.
“There is always something happening,” said Lieutenant Weir. “Perhaps there is a simple explanation – I do not believe in the supernatural – but the incident with the screw certainly made my hair stand on end.”
Though “Herbert’s” activities sometimes cause shivers of apprehension in the Sea Cadets’ timbers, it is mere coincidence that one part of the building has been let to a company of woollen underwear manufacturers.
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 16th March 1954.