His commercial skills – he was a successful businessman – were also in demand within the Spiritualist movement. Eric was president of Stourbridge Spiritualist Church for almost half a century, from 1963 until he stepped down in 2011, but had held other posts at the church since 1948. At the time of his passing he was honorary president. Theirs was a remarkable, loving partnership that was never self-centred: service to others was paramount in their lives. As well as playing key roles in their local church at Stourbridge, West Midlands, and becoming trustees of Spiritualist charities, they also made time to assist individuals on a personal level. Through the excellent mediumship of Gerard Smith, Eileen Davies and John Conway, to name but three, I received graphic and detailed personal evidence which surprised even me.

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Born just five days before Eric, in 1926, but many miles away on the Isle of Wight, just off England’s south coast, Heather was the daughter of Spiritualists who had founded Ventnor Spiritualist Church in 1938, the first on the island. She became very familiar with mediumship from her childhood. Eric was a true gentleman, a man of great peace, wisdom and compassion and what he didn’t know about Spiritualism wasn’t probably worth knowing,” said Mark Stone. And Dawn Brooks described him as “the most wonderful, inspiring gentleman and the embodiment of spirituality”. In addition to all his dedicated services, most of them performed in the public eye, Eric and Heather were both trustees on a number of charities, most notably the JV Trust which gave millions of pounds for renovations to the Arthur Findlay College, also known as Stansted Hall, and financial support to numerous churches. Jamie Beech, his grandson, wrote: “So sad to lose my grandfather this weekend but knowing he is free of pain and suffering makes this all a lot easier. Words can’t describe what he was to me so I will just say, he was my inspiration, hero and best friend all at the same time.” From that day on, our friendship grew, developing into a bond of deep trust and affection. I often spoke to him about the need to set down his unique experiences in a book. But Eric, ever humble and self-effacing, was reluctant, believing it would be too egocentric a thing to do.

I’ve had only two what I call ‘lightbulb’ moments in my life – those extraordinary spine-tingling encounters where there is an instant recognition and ‘knowing’ of a person you’ve never physically met before,” Sue explains. The subject was first raised by his older brother, Bert, when home on leave from the Royal Air Force. He told Eric and their sister, Laura, that whilst working on Catalina and Sunderland flying boats he and other crew members had “seen” colleagues who had been killed in aircraft accidents. They even experienced these phantom airmen walking straight through them.

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On August 9, 2009 Eric was presented with a “Lifetime Achievement Award for Services to Spiritualism” in a service at Stourbridge attended by 200 well-wishers, including SNU leaders. In some sittings with these three, reference was made by Heather to incidents which I had long forgotten, and to verify them I had to make searching enquiries to confirm the accuracy of the details. Some were extremely personal, and though I would love to share their veracity here, I cannot, because in doing so I would be betraying a pact that Heather and I made.”Eric and his fellow JV Trustees, Hugh and Margaret Davis, also rescued and helped relaunch Psychic News as a magazine, after its demise as a newspaper in 2010. In doing so, he was able to keep a promise he made to the publication’s founder, Maurice Barbanell, that he would do whatever he could to keep Psychic News in print if it ever encountered difficulties. Join us at Stourbridge for an evening's demonstration of mediumship with the superlative Chris Drew! In a life that spanned almost nine decades, it is inevitable that most memories of Eric Hatton will be associated with the past and with people who have long since passed to the spirit world. But Eric, who had a mischievous sense of humour and was great company, was also very modern in his outlook.

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Laraine Killarney, president and acting minister at Stourbridge Spiritualist Church, said: "They've all done more than 25 years and they've all worked on committees or as healers - giving service to the church to keep it going. That's an awful lot of experience and dedication."And with that conviction came a determination to comfort whenever he could others who were grieving and to encourage them to explore the spiritual implications that came with that knowledge. AT THE age of 89 and after major surgery for cancer from which he had made a remarkable recovery, Minister Eric Hatton – referred to by many as “Mr Spiritualism”– made his transition to the spirit world on 6 November. He passed peacefully at home, surrounded by his loved ones. At Stourbridge, we are proud to be a Spiritualist Church of truly international standing and recognition. Over the course of the past Century, we have been honoured to be the regular home of some of the most gifted and celebrated mediums, speakers, healers and teachers of our time.

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Eric, who by then was involved with local orthodox churches, was highly sceptical but Laura was open-minded, having met a young man who told her of his regular visits to a Spiritualist church on the outskirts of Birmingham. She met her brother’s scepticism with this retort: “Well, you challenge it, and find out whether it’s really true that people who die continue to live in another dimension.” As well as triggering Eric’s investigation of Spiritualism, brother Bert was to play an even bigger role in that quest. A year after he recounted seeing apparitions of dead airmen, Bert Hatton was the flight engineer on a Sunderland flying boat that took off at night from Singapore and crashed into the sea. Some of the crew survived but Bert was not one of them. The Hattons were devastated, of course. Being just five miles off the mainland, the Isle of Wight was heavily targeted by the Luftwaffe during World War Two, because early warning radar equipment was located there, and so, for their daughter’s safety, the Jermys decided to send her to Stourbridge, to be close to her sister-in-law. Heather often used her psychic gifts to help others and Eric said that he never recalled her taking money for those sittings. Her passing, ironically from a viral infection following successful heart surgery, was a huge loss to Eric, even with his knowledge of survival.It was at Stourbridge Spiritualist Church that Eric Hatton first saw Gordon Higginson demonstrating mediumship