Sir William Fletcher Barrett (10 February 1844 – 26 May 1925) was a British physicist and psychical researcher, best known as the leading figure behind the founding of both the Society for Psychical Research in London and the American Society for Psychical Research in Boston.
Early life and scientific career
Barrett was born in Kingston, Jamaica, the son of Congregationalist minister and amateur naturalist William Garland Barrett. The family returned to England in 1848, settling first in Royston, Hertfordshire, before moving to Manchester in 1855, where Barrett attended Old Trafford Grammar School. At 19, he was hired as an assistant to physicist John Tyndall at the Royal Institution in London, before moving into teaching. In 1873, he was appointed to the chair of physics at the Royal College of Science in Dublin, a post he held until his retirement in 1910. He built a distinguished scientific career alongside his psychical work, including important contributions to the study of metal alloys and vision, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1899.
Founding the Society for Psychical Research
Barrett's interest in psychical phenomena grew out of his earlier studies of mesmerism. In January 1882, he convened a meeting at the offices of the British National Association of Spiritualists that led directly to the founding of the Society for Psychical Research the following month, with Henry Sidgwick as its first president. Barrett went on to play a similarly foundational role in establishing the American Society for Psychical Research in Boston in 1885, following a visit to the United States.
Research and the Dublin Section
Barrett wrote extensively across the breadth of psychical research, including telepathy, clairvoyance, apparitions, mediumship, dowsing, and reported deathbed visions. While based in Dublin, he became the central figure in the SPR's Dublin Section, active from around 1908 to 1914, cultivating interest in psychical research among Dublin's scientific and cultural elite, including poet W. B. Yeats. His research on dowsing was published as The Divining Rod (1926), and his study of reported visions experienced by the dying was published posthumously as Death-Bed Visions (1926).
Death and legacy
Barrett died on 26 May 1925 in London. Despite a substantial mainstream scientific career, he is remembered today chiefly for his foundational role in psychical research, though recent scholarship has increasingly highlighted his significant, and until relatively recently under-recognised, standing within Irish scientific and intellectual circles during his decades in Dublin.
See also
- Society for Psychical Research
- American Society for Psychical Research
- Henry Sidgwick
- Frederic Myers