Novelist Nurse Saw Ghosts

Nothing phased Emma Pearson, not even seeing a ghost. She sent the following account to the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research (Vol. III. p. 20) in April 1888. Her two aunts Ann and Harriet Pearson were devoted to each other. In 1864, six years after Ann died, Harriet became very ill, and at her wish was taken to the London house where she and Ann were born. About 2a.m. on December 23rd, Emma and her niece were still awake in the room next to Harriet. They saw someone pass the door, short, wrapped up in an old shawl, a wig with three curls each side and an old black cap.

The niece, and a relative who was in Harriet’s room, both called out "It’s old Aunt Ann." To which Emma calmly responded "So it is: then Aunt Harriet will die to-day." That evening Harriet died after telling everyone that her sister had come to call her.

Emma also reported that when she was eight years old, she woke and saw an evil face at the window, and a hand offering a letter. She rose to take the letter, but fainted before she could do so. Years afterwards she learned of a legend that an abbess was drowned by remote ancestors of Emma's family. As she died the abbess predicted deaths by drowning for descendants of the family, and threatened that she would appear to each generation until the proffered letter was accepted. In fact, several members of the family did drown. (Journal of the Society for Psychical Research Vol. VI. p.76)

In addition to the three books which Emma wrote with Louisa McLaughlin about their adventures as battlefront nurses, she was the author of:

From Rome to Mentana In 2002 this 354-page travel book was reprinted in facsimile as an Elibron Classic by Adamant Media Corporation of London. When originally published in 1868, it was praised by an anonymous reviewer in the Gentleman's Magazine, which at that time was edited by Edward Walford; by an interesting coincidence Edward also happened to have edited the book. Edward, an eminent writer of family and local histories, was the uncle of John Desborough Walford-Gosnall, JP, husband of Emma's sister Harriet. In 1847 Edward was ordained a priest of Church of England; six years later he was admitted into the Church of Rome; in 1860 he returned to the Church of England, only to be re-admitted to the Church of Rome in 1871.

One Love in a Life. This three-decker novel published in 1874 is dedicated to “the dear friend, ‘tender and true,’ who shared hardship and danger by my side, Louisa E. McLaughlin, in loving remembrance of 1870.” The story demonstrates that women’s rights are not needed for good women to overcome their problems, while the rest cannot organize themselves owing to petty rivalries. The Daily Telegraph review said: “The tone is elevating, and the descriptions of scenery and society excellent.” Available as an eBook.

His Little Cousin: A Tale. A different publisher put out this three-volume novel a year after One Love in a Life. Unlike the previous publisher's, this one's advertisements were so shamelessly commercial as to mention the price, one and a half guineas, or, to put it more vulgarly, 31 shillings and sixpence, a week's earnings for an average labourer.

Emma's work often appeared in the St. James's Magazine a literary periodical with eminent contributors such as Anthony Trollope. A similar magazine, Temple Bar, published her verbatim record of an infantryman telling how a ball held by French officers led to their rout in the Battle of Sedan: see A Soldier's Story.

Demonstrating that gems lay among the pebbles on the beach at Yarmouth, Emma showed specimens of amber, jet, agate, jasper, chalcedony, and petrifaction at the London International Exhibition of 1862. Two years earlier she inherited a share in the Yarmouth Theatre, from Rear-Admiral Sir Eaton Stannard Travers, presumably a friend of her late father, a Navy captain. Emma kept the share, entitling her to free pairs of tickets, until she left Yarmouth to live in London in 1876, when she transferred the share to John Walford-Gosnall.

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