7 1980′s Finding Dorothy
It is a well-known fact that Doreen Valiente initiated her search for Old Dorothy Clutterbuck due to historian Jeffrey B. Russell’s 1980 book, A History of Witchcraft. In his book, Russell implies that Gerald Gardner invented Old Dorothy (although Gardner claimed that Old Dorothy initiated him in 1939).(See letter to Jeffrey Russell).
Although it was Doreen’s painstaking and diligent research that finally unearthed the death certificate of Old Dorothy Clutterbuck in 1982, it must be noted that it was Virginia Russell who suggested that Doreen should look at the Indian Military Records. Many English families had connections with India during the Colonial period, and as luck would have it, so did the Clutterbuck’s. You can see a copy of Dorothy’s birth certificate and also her last will and testament.
