Conan Doyle letter and “Gary Kemp”

[Matty]

This is in reference to the 30th December commentary. Now, I thought Gary Kemp was in Spandau Ballet, the 80’s band – perhaps he’s older than he looks! I may very well be wrong but I don’t think Gary was being used as a first name in those days. As far as I’m aware the name only really came into use when Gary Cooper assumed it in the 30’s. Does anyone have any ideas on who this person is?

 

[Roger_Harris]

I think I've found one clue. In what appears to be the Table of Contents for a book called "Who's Who in Occultism, New Thought Psychism and Spiritualism" published in 1927 by The Occult Press, there is this one line:

KEMP, Mr. Bruce. (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, sittings).

(If this is the Kemp referred to, I think the letter may actually say something like "young Kemp" rather than Gary Kemp.)

However, I haven't yet found any other references to a spiritualist or medium named Bruce Kemp.

(The first time I tried to post this, I included the URL to the page, but this forum software not only wouldn't let me post a URL because I haven't yet posted 15 times, it ate my message -- the form was blank when I went back to it. That's a rather user unfriendly thing to do!)

 

[Matty]

Well done Sherlock - I think you may have it there! It does look very much like "young" written in the letter.