The Ghost Club Society: Peter Underwood’s Haunted Legacy

The Ghost Club Society was an English paranormal organisation formed in 1993 by the prominent ghost investigator Peter Underwood after his departure from the Ghost Club of London. It was created as a continuation of the older tradition of organised ghost investigation, psychical enquiry, and serious discussion of hauntings, apparitions, mediumship, and paranormal phenomena.

Although the Ghost Club Society is now inactive, it remains an interesting part of the history of British ghost research. It was connected to one of the most famous names in ghost hunting, drew members from literary, theatrical, spiritualist, and psychical research circles, and carried forward the idea that ghosts and hauntings deserved organised study rather than casual dismissal.

Origins of the Ghost Club Society

The Ghost Club Society was formed by Peter Underwood in 1993 after he left the Ghost Club of London. Underwood had been one of Britain’s best-known ghost hunters and had served as president of the Ghost Club before internal disagreements led him to establish a new organisation.

The society looked back to the tradition of the original ghost society founded in Cambridge in 1851. This connection gave the Ghost Club Society a sense of historical continuity. It was not merely a modern paranormal group, but part of a longer British tradition of investigating ghostly phenomena, haunted places, spiritual experiences, and the mysteries of survival after death.

Peter Underwood’s Role

Peter Underwood served as president for life of the Ghost Club Society. This was fitting, as the society was closely shaped by his personality, reputation, and lifelong dedication to ghost investigation.

Underwood had investigated hundreds of hauntings and was widely known as “Britain’s Number One Ghost Hunter.” His approach combined open-mindedness with caution. He believed that many ghost stories had natural explanations, but he also accepted that some experiences were genuinely mysterious and deserved deeper study.

Through the Ghost Club Society, Underwood continued his work of collecting cases, encouraging discussion, organising meetings, and keeping the serious study of ghosts alive for a new generation.

Joseph Goodman and the Society’s Structure

Joseph Goodman served as the first chairman of the Ghost Club Society. With Underwood as president for life and Goodman as chairman, the organisation had both symbolic leadership and practical structure.

The society held meetings and conducted paranormal investigations. These activities placed it within the tradition of psychical research societies, ghost clubs, and paranormal investigation groups that sought to examine unexplained phenomena through discussion, witness accounts, historical research, and field work.

A Society of Writers, Researchers, Mediums, and Public Figures

One of the most fascinating aspects of the Ghost Club Society was the range of people associated with it. Its membership included writers, mediums, actors, researchers, religious figures, and individuals connected with famous literary and occult lineages.

Among its members was author Colin Wilson, who served as vice president. Wilson was known for his writings on the occult, existentialism, crime, consciousness, and the paranormal. His involvement gave the society an intellectual and literary dimension.

Medium Rosemary Brown was also associated with the society. She became famous for claiming to receive music from deceased composers, making her one of the most unusual figures in modern mediumship.

Author Daniel Farson, the great-nephew of Bram Stoker, was another member. This connection linked the society indirectly to the legacy of Dracula and the Gothic imagination.

Parapsychologist Dr George Owen was also among those connected with the society, bringing a more research-oriented perspective to the organisation.

Other notable figures included Dame Barbara Cartland, actor Peter Cushing, Bishop Mervyn Stockwell, and Dame Jean Conan Doyle, a descendant of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Conan Doyle himself had been one of the most famous supporters of Spiritualism, making this connection especially meaningful in the wider history of paranormal belief.

The Ghost Club Society and Paranormal Investigation

The Ghost Club Society conducted meetings and paranormal investigations. Its activities reflected the enduring British fascination with haunted houses, apparitions, poltergeists, spirit communication, and the possibility of life after death.

Unlike entertainment-based ghost hunting, societies of this kind often placed emphasis on witness testimony, historical background, patterns of phenomena, and the careful recording of events. The aim was not merely to create fear or excitement, but to ask serious questions about what hauntings might be.

Were ghosts spirits of the dead? Were they emotional imprints left upon a place? Were they telepathic projections? Were they caused by living people, environmental factors, folklore, or misinterpretation? These were the kinds of questions that shaped serious ghost research.

A Bridge Between Ghost Lore and Psychical Research

The Ghost Club Society stood at the crossroads between folklore, ghost hunting, Spiritualism, psychical research, and popular paranormal culture.

It inherited the atmosphere of older ghost societies, where writers, clergy, researchers, and curious intellectuals gathered to discuss strange experiences. At the same time, it belonged to a modern world in which paranormal investigation was increasingly visible in books, television, and the media.

Peter Underwood’s involvement gave the society a bridge between old and new. He respected the stories of haunted places, but he also understood the need for discernment. He was fascinated by ghosts, but not willing to accept every claim without question.

The Inactivity of the Society

By 2005, the Ghost Club Society was inactive. Like many small specialist organisations, it appears to have faded as circumstances changed, members moved on, and the structure that supported it no longer continued in the same form.

Yet inactivity does not erase its significance. The Ghost Club Society remains part of the larger history of British paranormal investigation and the long attempt to understand ghosts as something more than superstition.

Its legacy survives through the work of Peter Underwood, the writings of its members, and the continuing fascination with organised ghost research.

Why the Ghost Club Society Matters

The Ghost Club Society matters because it represents a serious approach to the haunted world. It reminds us that ghost investigation has a history, a culture, and a lineage. Long before modern paranormal television and internet ghost hunting, people were forming societies, collecting witness reports, visiting haunted locations, and asking whether the dead might still reach the living.

The society also shows how the paranormal attracts a wide range of minds: writers, mediums, scholars, actors, clergy, occultists, sceptics, and believers. Ghosts are not only a matter of fear. They are also connected to grief, memory, history, place, religion, folklore, and the enduring human question of what happens after death.

Explore Ghosts and Hauntings Inside Occult World Academy

If the history of the Ghost Club Society fascinates you, then the Occult World Academy on Skool is the perfect place to continue your journey.

Inside the Academy, we explore ghosts, hauntings, spirit communication, mediumship, necromancy, paranormal investigation, occult history, witchcraft, demonology, ancient grimoires, divination, and the hidden forces that shape the unseen world.

The Occult World Skool Community is not just a place to read articles. It is a growing community for serious occultists, witches, seekers, paranormal enthusiasts, and spiritual explorers who want to study more deeply and connect with others who share their fascination with the mysterious.

Join the Occult World Academy on Skool and step into a community where ghosts, spirits, haunted places, occult traditions, and supernatural mysteries are explored with depth, curiosity, and respect.

The Continuing Call of the Haunted

The Ghost Club Society may now be inactive, but the questions it pursued remain alive.

What are ghosts? Why do some places seem haunted? Can the dead communicate? Are apparitions spirits, memories, psychic impressions, or something stranger? Why do certain houses, objects, roads, churches, and landscapes continue to attract ghost stories across generations?

These questions have never disappeared. They continue to draw investigators, occultists, psychical researchers, mediums, and ordinary people who have experienced something they cannot explain.

The Ghost Club Society was one chapter in that long story.

The haunted world still calls.