Dingwall was described as an eccentric by those who knew him.[4] Having developed his skills as a librarian atCambridge University Library while an undergraduate, in 1946 he joined the Library of theBritish Museum as a voluntary assistant, but from 1947 was promoted to Hon. Assistant Keeper in the Reference Division, cataloguing private case material oferotica, magic and the paranormal.[5][6][7] He co-edited the four-volume setAbnormal Hypnotic Phenomena (1967–68). The set was described in a review as of considerable historical interest and well written.[8] His bookRacial Pride and Prejudice received positive reviews.[9][10] His books onartificial cranial deformation andinfibulation also received positive reviews.[11][12][13][14]
Dingwall was nicknamed "Dirty Ding" due to his interests in erotica and sexual customs.[15][16]
He was the honorary vice-president forThe Magic Circle and a founding member of its Occult Committee.[17]
Dingwall was married twice; firstly to Doris Dunn, an anthropologist and archaeologist (she later married the anthropologistJohn Layard); and secondly, to the psychologist Norah Margaret Davis.[18]
Dingwall "came from an affluent family and was astute in financial matters (he left an estate valued at £678,246)".[19] His extensive papers[20] were left to the University of London Library, and a conservation project to catalogue and conserve the collection was funded by theWellcome Trust in 2012–3.[21] Dingwall had a long interest in antiquarianhorology, and had joined the antiquarian section of theBritish Horological Institute in 1951.[22] He left the British Museum a singing bird automaton[23] and anautomaton clock.[24] The bulk of his remaining estate was divided between the British Library and the horological section (the Clocks and Watches department) of the British Museum. This bequest to the museum was used to acquire sixteen further objects for the horological collection.[25] In 1988 the museum proposed combining the remaining funds with part of the bequest left to theClockmakers Company by Reginald Beloe (a wealth City of London financier, noted horological collector and Past-Master of the Clockmakers Company). Since 1989 the joint fund has supported the annualDingwall Beloe Lecture Series, held at the British Museum.
In the 1920s and 1930s Dingwall travelled widely in Europe and the United States to investigate mediums. He has been described as a "sceptical enquirer"[26] and a psychical investigator who "spent many years exposing fraud and unscientific practices among psychical researchers."[27]
He co-wrote theskeptical bookFour Modern Ghosts (1958) withTrevor H. Hall which gave rationalistic explanations for alleged supernatural phenomena such as the Yorkshire Museum Ghost andHarry Price's Rosaliematerialization séance.[28] In his bookCritics Dilemma (1966), Dingwall supported Hall's criticism of the spiritualistWilliam Crookes and the mediumFlorence Cook.[29][30]
He investigated themediumship ofEusapia Palladino and came to the conclusion she was "vital, vulgar, amorous and a cheat."[31] In 1920, Dingwall with V. J. Woolley tested the mediumEva Carrière in London. The results were negative and it was discovered that herectoplasm was made from chewed paper.[32]
Dingwall also investigated the mediumMina Crandon.[33] He suspected that she hid her ectoplasm in hervagina but did not come to any definite conclusion.[34][35] His suspicion was deemed feasible by the gynecologistFlorence Willey.[36]
In his later years Dingwall became a critic of psychical research. In an essay in 1971 he summed up his extensive experience in parapsychological research and came to the conclusion:
Since I gave up nearly all active work in psychical research, I have often been asked why, after more than sixty years' work in the field, I have finally lost most of my interest in it. There are two answers to the question. First, I have come to the conclusion that the present immense interest in occultism and in the grosser forms of superstition is due, to a certain extent at least, to the persistent and far-reaching propaganda put out by the parapsychologists. In this they have, I think, a very grave responsibility. With the gradual decline in the West of belief in Christianity has come not, as one might have hoped, a leaning toward the rational way of looking at the world but a decided tendency to adopt the magical way. Thus Christianity, unbelievable as it may be to the rational mind, has been supported by the occult superstitions of darker ages. One reason, therefore, for my ceasing work is that I do not wish to be associated with persons who actively support such superstitions as are today everywhere apparent. I cannot accept such responsibility...After sixty years' experience and personal acquaintance with most of the leading parapsychologists of that period I do not think I could name half a dozen whom I could call objective students who honestly wished to discover the truth.
His essayThe Need for Responsibility in Parapsychology: My Sixty Years in Psychical Research (1971) was reprinted inA Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology (1985) by theCSICOP founderPaul Kurtz.[37] The skepticGordon Stein dedicated the bookThe Encyclopedia of the Paranormal to Dingwall.[38]
According to authors William Kalush andLarry Sloman when investigating the mediumMina Crandon; Dingwall told her to take off her clothes and sit in the nude. Crandon would also sometimes sprinkleluminous powder on her breasts and because of such activitiesWilliam McDougall and other psychical researchers criticised Dingwall for having improper relations with Crandon.[39]
A caricature on the ultimate ineffectualness ofchastity belts. According to information in the scholarly workThe Girdle of Chastity by Eric John Dingwall, there were a number of versions, but this specific version of the caricature was publishedc. 1590.
The Haunting of Borley Rectory: A Critical Survey of the Evidence (1956) with [K. M. Goldney and Trevor H. Hall, commonly referred to as "The Borley Report"]
Very Peculiar People: Portrait Studies in the Queer, the Abnormal and the Uncanny (1950)
Racial Pride and Prejudice (1946)
Woman: An Historical, Gynecological and Anthropological Compendium (1935)
How to Use a Large Library (1933)
Artificial Cranial Deformation (1931)
The Girdle of Chastity (1931)
Ghosts and Spirits in the Ancient World (1930)
How to Go to a Medium: A Manual of Instruction (1927)
Studies in the Sexual Life of Ancient and Medieval Peoples (1925)
^Daryl E. Chubin, Ellen W. Chu. (1989).Science Off the Pedestal: Social Perspectives on Science and Technology. Wadsworth Publishing Company. p. 28.ISBN978-0534098582
^Raymond Buckland. (2005).The Spirit Book: The Encyclopedia of Clairvoyance, Channeling, and Spirit Communication. Visible Ink Press. p. 105.ISBN978-1578592135
^Jonathan Croall. (1983).Neill of Summerhill: The Permanent Rebel. Pantheon Books. p. 174.ISBN978-0394514031
^E. Stengel. (1969). "Mesmerism And Hypnotism In The 19th Century".The British Medical Journal. Vol. 3, No. 5665. p. 288.
^Cullen Young. (1947). "Racial Pride and Prejudice by Eric John Dingwall".Africa: Journal of the International African Institute Vol. 17, No. 2. pp. 144-145.
^Everett C. Hughes. (1950). "Racial Pride and Prejudice by Eric John Dingwall".American Journal of Sociology. Vol. 56, No. 3. pp. 279-280.
^"Male Infibulation by John Dingwall".The British Medical Journal. Vol. 2, No. 3383 (Oct. 31, 1925). p. 803.
^Herbert W. Krieger. (1926). "Male Infibulation by Eric John Dingwall".American Anthropologist, New Series. Vol. 28, No. 3. pp. 558-559.
^"Artificial Cranial Deformation by Eric John Dingwall".The British Medical Journal Vol. 2, No. 3702 (Dec. 19, 1931). pp. 1140-1141.
^V. Lebzelter. (1932). "Artificial Cranial Deformation by Eric John Dingwall".Anthropos. Bd. 27, H. 3./4. pp. 685-686.
^Robert Wood. (1992).The Widow of Borley: A Psychical Investigation. Duckworth. p. 54.ISBN978-0715624197 "Eric J. Dingwall, an academic in charge of the restricted collection (dirty books) at the British Library who rejoiced in the nickname Dirty Ding".
^Jo Manning. (2005).My Lady Scandalous: The Amazing Life and Outrageous Times of Grace Dalrymple Elliott, Royal Courtesan. Simon & Schuster. p. 117.ISBN978-0743262620 "Condoms were donated to the British Museum by Eric J. Dingwall, nicknamed "Dirty Ding," who collected erotica and material on aberrant sexual customs; Dingwall was a librarian at Cambridge University and later at the British Museum."
^Eric Dingwall,Trevor H. Hall. (1958).Four Modern Ghosts. Gerald Duckworth.
^C. E. M. Hansel. (1989).The Search for Psychic Power: ESP and Parapsychology Revisited. Prometheus Books. p. 287.ISBN0-87975-516-4 "In hisCritics Dilemma (1966) he revealed that in 1922 he had himself met the man to whom Florence Cook had given details of her affair with Crookes, her trips to Paris, and the assistance that Crookes had provided in order to fake the spirit Katie King. Dingwall supported Hall's conclusions and after considering attempts to explain away the evidence writes "If we are being asked to think that Crookes really believed in all of this, it appears his modern defenders are reducing him almost to the level of an imbecile and denigrating him to a far greater degree than Mr. Hall has done."
^William Hodson Brock. (2008).William Crookes (1832–1919) and the Commercialization of Science. Ashgate. p. 17.ISBN978-0754663225
^David C. Knight. (1969).The ESP Reader. Grosset & Dunlap. p. 60
^Simeon Edmunds. (1966).Spiritualism: A Critical Survey. Aquarian Press. pp. 110-111.ISBN978-0850300130 "In 1920 Eva C came to London at the invitation of the SPR. Forty séances, held under the direction of Dr. E. J. Dingwall and Dr. J. V. Woolley, proved entirely negative. The small amount of 'ectoplasm' produced proved on analysis to be nothing more than chewed up paper."
^James R. Lewis. (1995).Encyclopedia of Death and the Afterlife. Visible Ink. p. 118.ISBN978-1578591077 "The researcher Eric J. Dingwall accused her of hiding ectoplasm in her vagina and projecting it with muscle contractions."
^C. E. M. Hansel. (1989).The Search for Psychic Power: ESP and Parapsychology Revisited. Prometheus Books. p. 244.ISBN0-87975-516-4 "In 1925, Margery was investigated by E. J. Dingwall of the British Society for Psychical Research. His report is difficult to assess. He showed that most of the phenomena could have been produced by trickery on the part of Margery and her husband, but he seemed loath to come to any definite conclusion."
^Malcolm Gaskill (2001),Hellish Nell: Last of Britain's Witches. Fourth Estate. p. 238.ISBN978-1841151090 "Dingwall's suspicions were confirmed by eminent gynaecologist Dr Florence Willey, wife of SPR founder Sir William Barrett, who informed him in May 1925 that "of course it would be quite possible to pack a considerable portion of such substance into the vagina."
^Eric Dingwall. (1985).The Need for Responsibility in Parapsychology: My Sixty Years in Psychical Research. InPaul Kurtz. (1985).A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology. pp. 161–174. Prometheus Books.
