Eleanor Mildred Balfour was born in East Lothian, daughter of James Maitland Balfour and Lady Blanche Harriet. She was born into perhaps the most prominent political clan in 19th-century Britain, the 'Hotel Cecil': her brother Arthur would eventually himself become prime minister. Her sister was biologist Alice Blanche Balfour. Another brother, Frank, also a biologist, died young in a climbing accident.
Eleanor and her husband resided at Newnham until 1900, the year of Henry Sidgwick's death. In 1894 Sidgwick was one of the first three women to serve on a royal commission, the Bryce commission on Secondary Education.
As a young woman, Eleanor had helped Rayleigh improve the accuracy of experimental measurement of electrical resistance; she subsequently turned her careful experimental mind to the question of testing the veracity of claims for psychical phenomena. She was elected President of the Society for Psychical Research in 1908 and named President of Honour in 1932.[2]
In 1916 Sidgwick left Cambridge to live with one of her brothers near Woking, where she remained until her death in 1936.
Most of her writings related to psychical research, and are contained in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research.[4] However, some related to educational matters, and a couple of essays dealt with the morality of international affairs.
Sidgwick was highly critical of physical mediumship. In 1886 and 1887 a series of publications by S. J. Davey, Richard Hodgson and Sidgwick in the Journal for the Society for Psychical Research exposed the slate writing tricks of the medium William Eglinton.[5] Sidgwick regarded Eglinton to be nothing more than a clever conjurer.[6] Due to the critical papers, Stainton Moses and other prominent spiritualist members resigned from the Society for Psychical Research.[7][8]
Sidgwick, Eleanor. (1886). Mr. Eglinton. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 2: 282–334.
Sidgwick, Eleanor. (1886–87) Results of a Personal Investigation into the 'Physical Phenomena' of Spiritualism. With Some Critical Remarks on the Evidence for the Genuineness of Such Phenomena. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 4: 45–74.
Sidgwick, Eleanor. (1891). On Spirit Photographs: A Reply to Mr A.R. Wallace. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 7: 268–289.
Sidgwick, Eleanor. (1915). A Contribution to the Study of the Psychology of Mrs. Piper's Trance Phenomena. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 28: 1–657.
Sidgwick, Eleanor. (1917–18). Review: The Reality of Psychic Phenomena by W. J. Crawford. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research: 18: 29–31.
Sidgwick, Eleanor. (1922). Phantasms of the Living: An Examination and Analysis of Cases of Telepathy between Living Persons Printed in the "Journal" of the Society for Psychical Research since the Publication of the Book "Phantasms of the Living," by Gurney, Myers and Podmore in 1886. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 33: 23-429.
^Oppenheim, Janet. (1988). The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850–1914. Cambridge University Press. pp. 139–140. ISBN978-0521347679
^Owen, Alex. (1989). The Darkened Room: Women, Power, and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England. University of Chicago Press. p. 261. ISBN0-226-64205-4
^Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. (1992). The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits. Facts on File. p. 224. ISBN0-8160-2140-6 "Following Eleanor sidgwick's comments on the fraudulent slate-writing medium William Eglinton in 1886, Moses withdrew from the SPR's council and resigned from the society. Several others left with him or shortly thereafter."
^Warner, Marina. (2006). Phantasmagoria: Spirit Visions, Metaphors, and Media into the Twenty-first Century. Oxford University Press. p. 241. ISBN978-0-19-929994-2
^Edmunds, Simeon. (1966). Spiritualism: A Critical Survey. Aquarian Press. p. 115. ISBN978-0850300130 "The early history of spirit photography was reviewed by Mrs Henry Sidgwick in the Proceedings of the SPR in 1891. She showed clearly not only that Mumler, Hudson, Buguet and their ilk were fraudulent, but the way in which those who believed in them were deceived."
Further reading
J. N. Howard, "Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick and the Rayleighs," Applied Optics 3, 1120- (1964)
Fowler, Helen (1996). "Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick 1845–1936". In Shils, Edward; Blacker, Carmen (eds.). Cambridge Women. Twelve Portraits.