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** This is an archived, static copy of the Casebook messages boards dating from 1998 to 2003. These threads cannot be replied to here. If you want to participate in our current forums please go to https://forum.casebook.org **
"All your 'Lees' ! "
Casebook Message Boards: General Discussion: Miscellaneous:
"All your 'Lees' ! "
Author: Monty
Friday, 04 October 2002 - 04:59 am |        | Hello all,
Found in the Leicester Mercury last night for anyone thats interested.....
........ "A ROYAL REUNION MADE FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE
10:30 - 03 October 2002
Painstakingly, two servants laid out the prince consort's formal evening wear.
In the dining-room below his Balmoral apartments, his favourite dish of trout was being prepared.
Nightly, the ritual took place, a formality insisted upon by a woman still dressed in deepest black. Yet the clothes were never worn and the food stayed untouched, which was hardly surprising, as Prince Albert had been dead over 10 years.
In the summer of 1871, Queen Victoria was still unable to accept Albert was gone forever.
His photograph hung over her bed and his apartments in all the royal houses were kept exactly as they always had been.
Now, into this unreal world was to burst a figure with the power to make sure that, for the rest of the queen's life, nothing would be quite the same again.
For a 13-year-old named Robert James Lees was apparently able to contact the dead prince, and relay messages to his widow.
Only recently have Robert Lees's relatives released information giving details of the link between the queen and a young Birmingham schoolboy.
It seems the queen was told of a report claiming her late consort had spoken at a seance, and she sent two members of her household to investigate.
Their instructions were to keep their names and the purpose of their visit a secret, and to attend a seance to discover if the rumour was true.
Two days later, the men went to a seance given by Lees in a house on the outskirts of the city. Within seconds of the boy sinking into a trance, the visitors were astonished to hear what seemed to be Albert's voice coming from his lips.
He singled out the queen's men and greeted them by their names. Then the boy shook hands, giving the highest Masonic handshake, something he could not have known.
After giving evidence of his identity, the prince's spirit, if that's what it was, gave the men a message for the queen which only she would understand.
When this was passed on, the queen did understand, and tears welled in her eyes. It was a phrase from their courtship days which no one but the couple could have known.
A few days later, a letter arrived at Buckingham Palace from Robert Lees.
A psychical researcher, the late John McDonald, who researched the incident, has written: "It seemed the prince consort had controlled the boy's hand - the writing was almost a replica of Albert's. It was signed by a pet name used only by him in private letters to the queen.
"The boy was summoned to Buckingham Palace, where a unique reunion took place. The boy apparently went into a trance and Albert spoke to his wife once again.
"She was so moved that she asked to boy to remain permanently at court. But a voice claiming to be Robert's spirit guide forbade this. Instead, the queen was told by her dead husband that her majesty's servant, John Brown, would, in future, take messages from the prince.
"But Robert would help when necessary and made visits to the queen in subsequent years''
Robert Lees grew up to be a journalist and author. He planned to publish an account of his seances with the queen, but officials said she forbade it. She appealed to him to keep it secret, and Lees agreed.
Links from beyond the grave apparently continued between the queen and Albert, though Lees was not always present.
Then Robert Lees died suddenly, in 1899, at 41 and, for the two remaining years of the queen's life, she was unable to contact her beloved husband.
Whether Lees was genuine or phoney, breaking the chain of communication with the other side, whether real or imaginary, had a traumatic effect on the aged monarch. Some aides even said it hastened her death.
As John Brown was said to have remarked: "She lost her husband, found him, and now, when frail and ill, has lost him again. I fear it will be too much for her to bear.''
For the rest of her life, Queen Victoria lived in virtual seclusion and died, aged 82, in 1901."
Monty
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Author: Wolf Vanderlinden
Friday, 04 October 2002 - 11:23 am | | Robert James Lees died in 1931 at age 82.
Wolf. |
Author: Timsta
Friday, 04 October 2002 - 12:23 pm | | All your 'Lees'....
... are belong to us.
Timsta |
Author: Monty
Saturday, 05 October 2002 - 07:54 am | | Wolf,
Aaah, but did he ? but did he ?
$h*t, he did.
Get me the editor on the phone !
Monty
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Author: jennifer pegg
Friday, 11 October 2002 - 08:17 am | | he certainly did not die in 1899 in fact he is alive and well and confirmed on the 1901 census i have seen orbituries to him in the leicester mercury in 1931. as you know i am from leicester and interested in lees but i havent seen this as i am at uni in coventry so could you fill me in on a few details like who worte the article email me if you prefer
regards
jennifer |
Author: Monty
Friday, 11 October 2002 - 11:35 am | | Jennifer,
Ive mailed you....let me know if you get it !!!
Monty
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Author: jennifer pegg
Saturday, 12 October 2002 - 06:16 am | | hello, monty
tis I?
see, i have looked at thje article via the leicester mercury website. It was certainly biazzare. does anyone know who jonh Mcdoanld mentioned in this article might be?
jennifer |
Author: Monty
Saturday, 12 October 2002 - 08:44 am | | Jennifer,
Tis you indeed,
Well done for finding the article. I have no idea who John McDonald is.....
...I know a Jim McDonald from Weatherfield, a Malcolm McDonald who had huge buggers grips and no front teeth and an Old McDonald who had a farm....
...but no John McDonald. Im sorry.
Monty
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Author: jennifer pegg
Sunday, 13 October 2002 - 05:03 am | | thats alright.
i wonder who he is (and if he is real) it sounds from the article that he is from the era. the only john mcdonalds i could find in google appeared to be a baseball player and when i added psychic a modern psychic.
jennifer |
Author: Stephen Butt
Wednesday, 01 January 2003 - 03:42 pm | | I am based in Leicester Mercury land, and so found the provenance of this article very puzzling. After all, the Leicester Mercury ran its own obituary on Lees in January 1931, and have printed many related stories over the years, such as the attempts of his children to re-open a Psychic Centre, and his daughter's death. I have seen their own clippings file on Lees which contains much basic and accurate biographical information on Lees. Why they published this article - and didn't check it - is a mystery.
SB. |
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