If, as so many believe, ghosts are spirits of the deceased lingering in places they once knew in life, then this tale presents something of a puzzle. There would seem to be no reason why a house in Graham Road should be haunted by the shade of an early 19th-century soldier – yet that is precisely what 'Deborah' (pseudonym) clearly remembers seeing here.

Above: Graham Road. (James Clark, 2013)

Graham Road lies just to the south of Figges Marsh in upper Mitcham, and at the time the house in question was divided into two flats, one downstairs and one upstairs. The downstairs flat was Deborah's childhood home from 1970 until 1976.

It was, however, only on occasions when she was visiting her neighbour's flat upstairs that Deborah encountered this ghost. She remembers seeing it on three or four separate occasions in around 1974/75, at which time she would have been 4 or 5 years old. It was the apparition of a soldier wearing what in retrospect she believes was the redcoat of a British Army infantryman (circa 1835).

'I have a very clear memory of him still today,' she said.

After looking online for depictions of soldiers Deborah found the illustration shown below. She says that the private depicted 'is the double' of the figure she saw.

Above: British infantryman, c. 1835.
('Regimental Nicknames and Traditions of the British Army' (5th ed.), 1916, p.53)

Deborah always saw the apparition in daylight and always in the same place: the main upstairs room at the front of the building.

'He looked solid as if he was really in the room. He was tall and slim with no real kind of expression on his face apart from the "army look" (as if he was on parade) if that makes sense. I would say he was between 25 and 35.

'He used to appear near the doorway then slowly march, gun upright on shoulder, through the room ... then disappear [into a wall]. He did this every time I saw him.

'I never once felt threatened by him.'

Deborah would have further strange experiences long after her family moved away from Graham Road. In February 2013 she commented: 'Every home I have lived in since having my kids has had some kind of presence. I have a spirit where I am now. I believe it's the past tenant just keeping an eye on us. I used to be scared but now I am not. I have been told in the past that I have some psychic traits. I do see things in my dreams, especially of people I know that have passed.'

Above: The area around Graham Road as it was in the early 19th century, indicating the approximate location of Deborah's childhood home. (Taken from '24 Miles round London', published by G. F. Crutchley, 1841)

There is no apparent connection between the upper storey of that house in Graham Road and the military. Indeed there was not even a building on this site in the early 19th century: the map above shows the area as it was in 1841.

There is, therefore, no neat story to 'explain' why this ghost should have been seen here - and this lack of reason perhaps makes Deborah's experiences all the more disquieting.

[Source: personal communication with 'Deborah' (pseudonym), February 2013.]

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