Ralph Shirley

Born in Oxford on December 30, 1865, Ralph Shirley was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford. He became an important figure in British occult publishing and is especially remembered as the founding editor of The Occult Review, a magazine he launched in 1905 and guided for more than two decades.

Alongside his editorial work, he wrote books of his own, including The Angel Warriors at Mons and Occultists & Mystics of All Ages. His writing shows a strong interest in spiritualism, mysticism, psychic phenomena, and the strange borderland between belief, legend, and reported experience.

Shirley died in 1946. Today he is mainly remembered by readers interested in the history of occult literature, where his magazine and books remain a useful window into the supernatural interests of his era.