James Alexander Cannon

Epithet: Practitioner of orthodox and alternative health treatments (1896-1963)

Record type: Biographies

Biography: From ‘New Manx Worthies’ (2006):

The Isle of Man must have proved irresistible to 'His Excellency' Dr 'Sir' Alexander Cannon, 'KGSL, Kushog Yogi of Northern Tibet', during the first few months of World War II. Despite a lucrative London medical practice, first at 38 Harley Street and latterly at 53 Welbeck Street, Cannon must have favourably compared the tranquillity of the Island to the dangers of the capital. He discovered the Island in August 1939 when he inspected the 55-acre Ballamoar estate at Jurby. He completed its purchase from London, returning with his assistants 'Joyce de Rhonda' and 'Rhonda de Rhonda' in April 1940.

At Ballamoar he established the Isle of Man Clinic, ostensibly for the psychotherapeutic treatment of nervous disorders, to which he attracted a large and wealthy clientele.

Military establishments were being set up or expanded on the Island, including the 305-acre RAF aerodrome built on fourteen requisiitoned fields adjoining Ballamoar. RAF Jurby was a purpose-planned armament training station and bombing and gunnery school.

Cannon was soon to be suspected of subversive activities, and the Lieutenant Governor, Earl Granville, signed requisitioning papers on Ballamoar on the grounds that the property was wanted for important national purposes.

The Governor, on the advice of the Island's Security Control Officer, Captain A.H. d'Egville, had reached his decision in the light of 'official' suspicions that Cannon encouraged his patients to discuss their war work, and also because there were rumours that he looked favourably on the political views of Hitler. Investigation by the RAF only revealed that Cannon was indeed friendly with officers at Jurby, but that nothing he had ever said or done had raised strong suspicion.

The process which culminated with the official requisition of Ballamoar had begun some fourteen months earlier. Cannon's treatment of nervous disorders involved certain electrical apparatus and other technical appliances, short wave generators, Wimshurst machines and ultraviolet and infra-red light treatment units which the authorities contended were interfering with the wireless telegraphic apparatus at the Jurby airfield. The Chief Constable, Major Young, ordered the testing of all Cannon's electrical equipment by the Chief Inspector of Post Office Telephones on the Isle of Man, E.H. Vick. Vick reported, however, that '... from the apparatus inspected, it is not likely that it is used for any other purpose than various medical treatments'.

The authorities simultaneously set out to investigate possible offences under the Defence Regulations (Isle of Man) 1939. A warrant was obtained by Police Inspector William Kneen, to enter Ballamoar, 'at any time or times - and search such premises and every person found therein, and to seize any article ... which the officer ... has reasonable ground for believing to be evidence ... of an offence'.

All the search produced was some old high frequency apparatus which could have been used for transmitting and which was duly confiscated. However, on account of its age, condition and low wattage, legal action was ruled out.

Next followed the tapping of the telephone line at Ballamoar and the interception of Cannon's post and telegraphic messages, but nothing came of this either.

Cannon's social contacts were also investigated. Eve Drummond, a former patient at Ballamoar, was interviewed. In late 1939 she had been considered by the British intelligence agency, MI5, sufficiently pro-German to be removed from London to live on the Isle of Man. Her father, head of an established banking family, and others were similarly investigated but nothing untoward was established.

After leaving Ballamoar at the end of September 1941, Cannon rented Billown House, Malew, to which he transferred his clinic. It is difficult to understand the precise reason for the authorities removing him from Ballamoar. There were no grounds for arresting him, and they did not attempt to stop him operating his clinic or treating people from whom information might have been forthcoming.

The answer may lie in his background and character, particularly his claims to be the holder of so many awards and qualifications. Several of these were genuine, but amongst the following list there must be several which do not bear close scrutiny:

The title 'Your Excellency'.
Comm. Ered. Cay. Chev. De Justice -
(Sir).
KGCB, KCHB (Bart), KGCSH, KCHSH, KGCJ, KCHJ, KCA, MD, Ph.D, DPM, MA, Ch.B, FRSA, FRGS.
Inspector General for the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Isle of Man of the Military Order of Bethlehem (Italian Order).
Lord Lieutenant for the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Isle of Man of the Sovereign Order of St Hubert of Lorraine and Bar (Belgian Order).
Counsellor to the Grand Prior for the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Isle of Man of the Military Order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem (French Order).

Cannon held no British title which would warrant his being styled 'Sir'. However he held the Italian title of Commendatore Cavaliere of the Order of Bethlehem, and asserted that this was the equivalent of a British baronet. In fact it was an inferior title which ranked far below a knighthood.

His use of the title 'Excellency' was based on his holding the honorary positions of Inspector General for the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Isle of Man of the Military Order of Bethlehem and Lord Lieutenant for the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Isle of Man of the Sovereign Order of St Hubert of Lorraine and Bar. It is not known how he acquired these positions.

Cannon's Master of Arts and Doctorate (Cantab.) were, in fact, some sort of degrees from the University of Canton in China.

Alexander Cannon was born in Leeds on 4th August 1896, his father James's occupation being given as 'Lay missionary'. He was eighteen when war was declared in 1914. The Leeds Absent Voters' List of 1918 lists an Alexander Cannon as serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps. If this were he, it is possible that his interest in medicine had been stimulated by his wartime experiences. In 1919, at the time of his enrolment with the Faculty of Medicine at Leeds University, his home address was at a hostel in St Anne's Road, Bridlington, but his term-time address was 66 Blackman Lane, Leeds.

At university his subjects were physics, chemistry, zoology and botany. His examination passes were: Matriculation 1919; First Professional (MB) June 1920; Second Professional (MB) December 1921; Final - first part, December 1922, second part, July 1924. He served on the Medical Students' Representative Council from 1920 to 1922 and graduated in 1924 with an MB, Ch.B and later, in 1928, with an MD.

He was accepted onto the staff of the Nanning Hospital in Southern China, but worked there for only eighteen months before joining the Government Medical Depot in Hong Kong, from where he was assigned to the colony's prison hospital. While there his MD thesis subject, the disease beri-beri, was researched and completed and his doctorate was awarded in absentia. Cannon returned to England in 1930, joining the London County Council Mental Hospitals Service and in 1932 going to work at the council's mental hospital at Colney Hatch.

Here he was regarded as something of a queer fish because of his obsession with electrical healing methods such as etheric waves and yoga vibrations. In 1933 he published a book entitled The Invisible Influence, in which he advocated diagnosis by hypnotism, vibrations and other such methods. Almost immediately his employers dismissed him, but he successfully brought a civil action for reinstatement and the Hospitals Service transferred him to their other mental hospital at Bexleyheath in Kent.

At the start of 1937 Cannon set himself up in private practice in Harley Street. Diagnosis was by touch or by two mediums whom he put into hypnotic trances. Over a very short period he became a celebrity in fashionable circles able and willing to pay his large fees.

However a Dr Frederick Bronder invited Cannon to demonstrate his diagnostic skills to an audience at Bournemouth. Unbeknown to him, Bronder was employed by the British Medical Association. Cannon claimed to be able to diagnose both neurological and organic diseases, but failed completely. Bronder declared that he 'was a complete rotter who would be capable of anything. He is a brilliant mountebank, boastful and always telling lies'. Around this time Cannon began to affect old-fashioned frock coats, wing collar shirts, large black bow ties and spats. He also began to style himself 'His Excellency Sir Alexander Cannon' and to use after his name the large list of letters already recorded.

He appears to have had a strong inclination to mischief. Describing the electrical apparatus used at his Ballamoar clinic, he implied to the police that it could be used as a wireless transmitting set. On another occasion two rather gullible RAF Service Security Police Sergeants were left with the impression that Cannon was indeed a German agent. The Commandant at Onchan Internment Camp, Lord Greenway, was likewise duped.

Cannon's humour extended to the names adopted by his attendants, Joyce and Eleanor Robson, two ordinary women from the north east of England who changed their names by deed poll to Joyce de Rhonda and Rhonda de Rhonda on 22nd December 1937. The application of Cannon's unorthodox clinical treatments required all his skills of showmanship; having assistants with such an intriguing surname, and each with the title 'Dame of St Hubert', was theatre of the type which immensely appealed to him.

In 1941 the General Medical Council charged him with having issued a sickness certificate to an ARP Warden at Beckenham, Kent, without having seen or examined the patient. Cannon claimed he had made an 'hypnotic diagnosis' from a distance. At the hearing in London, he claimed to have made such diagnoses 'in more than 1000 cases and the results had been checked up and found correct by clinical examination'.

Not surprisingly, council members found the charges against him proved, although they stopped short of erasing his name from the medical register.

Having reached agreement on compensation for his loss of Ballamoar during the summer of 1943, Cannon then purchased Laureston, a large, secluded property on Ballaquayle Road, Douglas. He transferred the 'Clinic for the Treatment of Nervous Diseases' from Billown and still kept a considerable following.

At Laureston he also built and equipped his 'Theatre of Magic', entertaining audiences with programmes of mystery and magic up to the time of his death in March 1963. Typical of Cannon's showmanship was the use of his supposed thought-reading machine, the 'psychostethokyrtographmanometer', to enthral patients and visitors to Laureston and small select audiences in private houses around the Island.

One public performance at St Andrew's Hall, Douglas, in 1948 was reported in the Manx Press thus:

'Over 600 Islanders saw his demonstration of an Eastern experiment described as the 'Death Sleep'. For half an hour he lay in an air tight coffin on the hall platform. The coffin was then unscrewed and tilted on end to reveal the doctor ... standing with bowed head and folded hands. Perspiration rolled down his face as he stepped from the coffin with a 'warning message of a war from the great beyond''.

It is interesting to note that as a doctor at Colney Hatch Cannon had treated Aleister Crowley, the self-styled 'Master of Black Magic', who was once described by a High Court judge as 'the most evil man in Britain'.

In addition to his work in aid of certain Manx charities and his enthusiastic support for the Manx Magic Circle, Cannon was a regular supporter of the Douglas Choral Union and Manx Operatic Society.

He died aged 67 at Laureston.

Biography written by Roger Sims.

(With thanks to Culture Vannin as publishers of the book: Kelly, Dollin (general editor), ‘New Manx Worthies’, Manx Heritage Foundation/Culture Vannin, 2006, pp.63-6.)

Culture Vannin

#NMW

Nationality: English

Gender: Male

Date of birth: 4 August 1896

Date of death: 1963

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