Mrs Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (née von Hahn) (31 July 1831–8 May 1891)

Russian philosopher and occultist. Commonly known as Madame Blavatsky she was founder of the Theosophical movement and editor "The Theosophist" magazine from 1879 -1888. Blavastky had a privileged upbringing and became interested in the books on medieval occultism in her grandmother's library at home in Saratov. After her marriage to General Nikifor Vasilyevich Blavatsky in 1849, she very soon afterwards ran away and travelled extensively worldwide, eventually arriving in the USA where she became a naturalised citizen in 1878. In the same year she left for India, where she co-founded a headquarters of the Theosophical Society in Adyar. However, Blavatsky's trickery was exposed by a magician's assistant and she left India in 1885, travelling first to Germany then to England. Weakened by Bright's Disease, she died in England of influenza and was cremated at Woking Crematorium. Her publications include The Secret Doctrine (1888), The Key to Theosophy (1889) and The Voice of the Silence (1889).