Mike Dash

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The Disappearance of Benjamin Bathurst

‘The Disappearance of Benjamin Bathurst’ is an article Mike wrote for Fortean Times in 1990, at a time when the magazine was still published sporadically for subscribers only and he was one of the unpaid, four–strong editorial team largely responsible for the content of the title. It is a reinvestigation of one of the most famous Fortean tales, the unexplained disappearance of a British diplomat who, in the winter of 1809, went out to inspect his coach, ‘walked around the horses’, and vanished, supposedly in full view of astonished onlookers.

Mike researched the story in the Public Records Office (now the National Archives) and amid the dustier recesses of Cambridge University Library, the only UK copyright library that allows users access to the stacks. The result is an article that restores a well–known story to its proper context and offers realistic, rational explanations for a supposedly supernatural mystery.

First published in Fortean Times 54 (Summer 1990)