Keeper of museum resigns at York after “hauntings”.
From our own correspondent, York, Monday.
A special meeting of the council of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society at York today decided to accept the resignation of the keeper of the Yorkshire Museum, Mr G.F. Willmot, to take effect in about three months’ time. Mr Willmot has been keeper for the past four years.
Recently the museum has been the subject of discussion after reports of “ghostly” incidents in the library every fourth Sunday. The council’s decision was announced at a Press conference after the meeting by the hon. secretary, Mr Stephen Harland, who, when asked whether the resignation was connected with the ghost, replied: “I would rather not make any comment on that.” Nearly twenty of the twenty seven members of the council attended the meeting, which lasted two hours. The chairman (Mr. H.E. Harrowell), who presided, declined to make any comment on Mr Willmot’s resignation.
Mr Harland said that the council had agreed to allow the Psychical Research Society to carry out an investigation, but he did not know when or how it would be conducted. The Philosophical Society had been in touch with both the national body and the Leeds branch of the Psychical Research Society.
Mr Willmot, who served during the war with the Hampshire Regiment, was more emphatic when asked whether his resignation was connected with the subject of the ghost. He replied: “Yes, but I don’t want to say any more or to amplify it. It is one thing for a solitary person to see something, but it is quite another matter when it is seen by seven people.” The apparition was first seen in the museum by the attendant Mr George Jonas on a Sunday evening in October, and four Sundays later he saw what he described as “an elderly Edwardian figure in drainpipe trousers,” taking a book from one of the library shelves. As it was time for closing, Mr Jonas approached the man, but the figure disappeared.
In December Mr Jonas waited in the library with six friends and at 20 minutes to eight they saw the same book move slowly from the shelf as if drawn by a hand, and fall gently to the ground. The book belonged to Alderman Wooller, a former member of Darlington Council who bequeathed it to the museum.
Bradford Observer, 26th January 1954.