The photo was taken by a photographer who meant to take a photo of the library. She allowed the film to be exposed for one hour. Although no one was in the room or had enetered the room during the exposure, the developed photo shows the image of a man seated in a chair to the left side of the room. The photo was then shown to a relative of Lord Combermere and she felt that if did resemble him. Not everyone agreed, as the features of the man are not clear. It is known that he often sat in that very chair.

The strangest thing about the photo was that when it was taken, Lord Combermere was being buried in the local churchyard in Wrenbury, about four miles away. He had been killed a few days earlier in a road accident in London.

The photo attracted the attention of experts from the Society of Psychical Research. They experimentedby recreating the taking of this photo and initially dismissed this photograph as an unintentional mistake, assuming that a servant had entered the room while the shutter was open, sat down in the chair for a few minutes and then left unnoticed, leaving behind a the image.

Upon further inquiry, they found that the image did not resemble any of the servants in the house. What's more, all of the male servants had been away attending their master's funeral!