From Psychic News - July 2016 (Issue No. 4141)
The above excerpt is from From Psychic News - July 2016 (Issue No. 4141)
* Summer 2018: SAGB have since moved to new premises, at:
341 Queenstown Road
Battersea, London SW8 4LH
Telephone: 0207 931 6488
• How to find us
Former SAGB president passes to spirit world
STELLA BLAIR, former president of the Spiritualist Association of Great Britain (SAGB), has passed on from cancer aged 88, writes Tony Ortzen.
Stella moved from London several years ago to live in Suffolk with her eldest daughter, Annie, who is general manager of the Association, which is one of the oldest Spiritualist bodies in the capital.
Stella said her association with the SAGB began in 1968 and "blossomed into a lifetime of love and devotion to it".
In March of that year, Stella visited London on a business trip. Hailing a cab, she noticed a copy of Psychic News on the seat. She glanced at it. An advert for the SAGB caught her attention and she wondered what went on at its then plush premises at 33 Belgrave Square.
Deciding to investigate, Stella was told that private sittings and public demonstrations of clairvoyance were available on a daily basis and so she booked a sitting with medium Rae Welsh for later that day. It was to change her life.
Stella "received proof beyond doubt that our spirit lives on". Rae relayed a message from a mother-like figure - "a dear friend" - who wanted to thank Stella for some flowers. Unknown to the medium, it was the communicator's birthday the previous day.
Rae also mentioned a grandfather clock which had been left to her husband's nephew, homing in on an unusual fact: it had a false base in which Stella's friend used to conceal an old green bag containing money and important documents.
"The evidence Rae gave to me was incredible," said Stella. "She mentioned so many things which were 100 per cent correct. From that day on I spread the word."
Back home in Cumberland, north-west England, Stella began a Spiritualist meeting place above a pub. She and her sister, Vida Carlyle, visited as many Spiritualist churches as possible to find quality mediums to book. Word soon got around. Leading medium Mavis Pittilla phoned and suggested booking a hotel for a public demonstration of clairvoyance. Stella did so - and the meeting was sold out.
Stella and Vida made the 260-mile journey to the SAGB as often as possible, leaving on an early train, having a quick lunch at the SAGB's café, then a private sitting and a demonstration of clairvoyance before hurrying to catch the 5.30pm train back home.
A "chance meeting" with a friend of Annie Blair led to Stella hearing about a housekeeper's position with accommodation within walking distance of the SAGB.
"So began a new chapter," she recalled, "and, with great trepidation, I took the position. On 28 January 1989 my new life began."
Stella was housekeeper to several flats for 21 years, a job that gave her enough to pay for a development class at the SAGB.
"Meanwhile, before I came to London, I read as much as I could on Spiritualism, including books featuring Silver Birch, which were my favourites."
"I attended lectures by mediums Ivy Northage and Ursula Roberts, and was eventually taken into Gerrie March's dvelopment class. She was a brilliant teacher. Later, I was asked to take a meditation class. Vida used to come to London from her home in Northumberland. We often worked long into the night giving the SAGB a thorough clean."
Prior to her being voted onto the SAGB's council in 1991, Ivy Northgate's guide, Chan, told Stella that "he did not want me on the platform as a medium because he had work for me to do, and that people would come from all over the world.
"Chan added that I would never have a lot of money, but always enough. And so another chapter began."
In 1994, Stella became president of the SAGB "and made a lot of changes. The first one was to stop smoking in the building... and you can imagine just how popular I was!"
At that point, the SAGB had only around £10,000 in its bank account, which wasn't enough to pay its bills.
As part of its Belgrave Square premises, the Association owned an adjoining mews cottage where visiting mediums stayed. The deccision was taken to entirely renovate it and house mediums on the fourth floor of the Association's HQ.
"Letting the mews property gave us the funds we badly needed to continue," said Stella, "and the chance to carry on Spirit's work."
Keeping the Georgian listed premises up to scratch proved a nightmare, including "horrendous, unstoppable water damage to upstairs rooms. No sooner had we replaced a fallen ceiling than another area needed decoration. Damage from the top to the bottom of the building seemed to be never ending.
"Severe flooding from the flat roof at the rear wiped out irreplaceable documents and archives stored in a cupboard below. The beautiful parquet flooring on the ground floor was two inches deep in water."
Faced with repair bills of at least £1.5 million and an ever-decreasing lease, in 2010 the SAGB sold what remained of the lease and moved to premises owned by a charity in Victoria. *It is still searching for suitable permanent freehold premises.*
Following the momentous move, Stella commented: "We were now in a building with heating that worked, a roof that did not leak, funcional lifts, wheelchair access and toilets which did not block. Hurray!"
Owing to age and infirmity, several years ago Stella moved to her daughter Annie's home, where she passed on peacefully on 20 May after a short courageous battle with throat cancer. She had undergone surgery and radiotherapy in 2004 for cancer at the base of her tongue.
"I hope,"said Stella, "that at the end of the day Ivy Northate's guide will accept that I have given my life to the SAGB and done all I possible could in every possible way."
Asked about her mother's legacy, Annie said: "She would have said that her greatest achievement during the 30 years that she was a trustee, company secretary and many times president would have been that Spirit gave her the strength to continue to keep the doors of the SAGB open.
"Few people knew just how desperate things were financially when Stella was asked to take over all those years ago. She would say she had achieved her greatest wish, as the future of the SAGB is now secured in perpetuity because of her dedication and the endless work she did behind the scenes."
The above excerpt is from From Psychic News - July 2016 (Issue No. 4141)
* Summer 2018: SAGB have since moved to new premises, at:
341 Queenstown Road
Battersea, London SW8 4LH
Telephone: 0207 931 6488
• How to find us