Has the mystery of the ‘Wem Ghost’ photograph finally been solved?

A photograph that supposedly shows the ghost of a schoolgirl standing in a blazing building was copied from an old postcard, it was revealed yesterday.

An amateur photographer, Tony O’Rahilly, took the picture while photographing a fire that destroyed Wem Town Hall in Shropshire on November 19, 1995.

After developing his film, he claimed that he had captured an image of a girl wearing old-fashioned clothes standing amid the flames staring into the camera lens.

Mr O’Rahilly, who died five years ago, always denied doctoring the photograph — known as the ’Wem Ghost’ — which made headlines around the world.

Locals even claimed that it was an apparition of 14-year-old Jane Churm who accidentally set fire to the town hall in 1677.

But Brian Lear, 77, has apparently put an end to the mystery after he noticed a striking similarity between the spooky shot and a girl in a postcard that appeared in his local paper.

The postcard, printed in the Shropshire Star’s Pictures from the Past section, shows a street view of Wem in 1922. A girl standing in a shop doorway in the picture bares an uncanny resemblance to the Wem Ghost.

Mr Lear, a retired engineer and taxi driver from Shrewsbury, said: ”It is interesting to compare the two pictures. I was intrigued to find that she bore a striking likeness to the little girl featured as the Wem Ghost. Her dress and headgear appear to be identical.”

The Wem Ghost led to a plaque being placed on the newly built town hall and Wem was briefly renamed “Ghost Town”, attracting hundreds of tourists every year. ...

via Has the mystery of the ‘Wem Ghost’ photograph finally been solved? - Times Online.