Bill Bowes: England and Yorkshire cricketer becomes POW conjurer
William Eric Bowes (1908-1987), known as 'Bill' Bowes, was an English professional cricketer. He played for Yorkshire, Marylebone Cricket Club and represented England in test cricket 15 times.
Active between 1929 and 1946, Bowes' strength was as a right-arm fast-medium bowler. In first-class cricket he took 1,639 wickets at a cost of just 16.76, a highly commendable bowling average. At 6' 4", his bowling was a bit gangly and ponderous, but he delivered the goods. To those who knew him, Bowes was a charming, intelligent and generous sportsman.
W. E. (Bill) Bowes, cricketer (1932)
(Source: Public domain)
Off the cricket field, Bowes enjoyed a side-interest in magic. He wrote about his introduction to magic in his autobiography, Express Deliveries (1950):
“Sitting in the dressing-room at Lord’s one wet day when I was nineteen, I was fascinated by a display of conjuring given by Arthur Cuthbertson, a minor counties cricketer. The amateur conjuror is always assured of a good audience in a cricket pavilion.
“I was so interested that I determined to find out 'how it was done', and when I began to play for Yorkshire I had several opportunities for further study when local theatres invited us to see the show. If there was a magician on the bill I would beguile him into teaching me a few non-secret tricks. Often on rainy days the boys asked me to go through my repertoire of deception, and at winter cricket dinners I found that my tricks provided a good excuse for not making a speech.
“I made the acquaintance of the 'Find the Lady' expert in a Leicester racecourse gang. He was a twister, no doubt, but what a performer! He worked the trains on which we often travelled and I and others of the Yorkshire team came to know 'Ucky' as a great character … Realising my interest in cards, he showed me the moves of the 'lady'. Though I never achieved his degree of efficiency, I have since earned many pounds by manipulating the elusive lady - the earning being, let me add, in aid of charity.
“I also resorted to fair booths, and at Kettering spent every evening of our stay in the conjuror’s tent, paying my two-pence with a monotonous regularity …”
W. E. (Bill) Bowes, conjurer
(Source: Bowes, W. E., Express Deliveries (1950))
Bowes performed a range of magic, from close-up tricks, to parlour effects, and even stage illusions.
Props and advertisement for the 'The Great Sand & Sugar' trick, often performed by Bill Bowes
(Source: L. Davenports & Co.)
He was an active member of the Yorkshire Magical Club, whose members were a mix of professional and amateur magicians, including Chris Van Bern, Morelle, Ernest D'Albert, Trevor Hall, and Dr. Park Shackleton.
W. E. (Bill) Bowes, Churchman's Cigarettes card
(Source: Public domain)
As war approached, Bowes was at the top of his game as a cricketer. But, wanting to contribute to the war effort, he joined the Air Raid Precautions (A.R.P.), a civil defence organisation. A month after war was declared in September 1939, he joined the British Army. An initial stint as a lorry driver for a searchlight unit was followed by officer training with the Royal Artillery, and an emergency commission in November 1940.
156890 Second Lieutenant W. E. Bowes was posted to the Middle East in January 1941. Initially based in Egypt, he took the opportunity to learn from the local magicians when off-duty:
In late summer 1941, he took part in a radio programme recorded in North Africa and broadcast back in the U.K.
Over the next six months or so Bowes fought in the North African campaign, as Allied and Axis countries vied for control of the Western Desert. He was promoted to Lieutenant in May 1942. Just a month later, he was part of the British Eighth Army force defending the strategic Libyan port city of Tobruk. Despite the British defenders holding out against an Axis siege for eight months the year before (in the First Battle of Tobruk), in this Second Battle of Tobruk, the defenders found themselves isolated from the rest of the Eighth Army. Tobruk fell to Rommel's Afrika Korps and over 30,000 Allied troops suddenly became prisoners-of-war.
“Bill Bowes Missing”
(Source: Dundee Evening Telegraph, 13 July 1942)
Bowes was recorded as missing on 20 June 1942. Later, it was reported that he was one of the captured Allied soldiers. Within days he was transported to Benghazi, Libya's second largest city, and flown from there, across the Mediterranean, to mainland Italy. He landed in Lecce, before being moved up the Adriatic coast to a POW camp in Bari (P.G. 75) and onto Cheti.
The initials "P.G." stand for Prigione di Guerra (Prison of War) in Italian; often interchanged with the title Campo (field or military camp).
The camp at Cheti, known as P.G. 21, or Campo Cheti, was an old convent used as a prison for about 1,500 officers. Overcrowded, it had little running water, poor sanitation, very little food or stocks of warm clothing and, in winter, no heating. On top of having some of worst conditions among any Italian POW camp, its fascist guards exacted brutal punishments on the prisoners.
In spite of these privations, morale amongst the prisoners remained high and this was due in no small part to Bowes:
"There is an art to being a prisoner of war, at least, in being a successful one. It is a highly creative art; it it the art of living on one's wits and a not-too-full stomach," he wrote after the war, adding that he did his best to seek out "methods of combatting the mind-wracking, demoralising boredom of prison life."
Appointed as the camp’s sports officer, Bowes organised games of all descriptions using improvised materials and equipment. Sport would eventually become a major part of life in the camp, providing the prisoners with both a means of keeping fit and a way of passing the time. It was also good, of course, for team spirit and morale. Cricket was a common part of the programme, as was football (in which Bowes was a qualified referee).
The ingenuity, resourcefulness and spirit of the prisoners were all demonstrated in a remarkable game of cricket played in the camp on 3 July 1943 and which Bowes described as the “greatest and most memorable match in which I ever took part.”
Read more about the story of the POW camp cricket match.
Prisoner of War Camp in Italy during WW2
(Source: The Red Cross & St. John War Organisation)
After the Italian Armistice, in September 1943, the POWs looked set to be freed. The Italians had surrendered and stood-down their camp guards. But, orders from London were that British prisoners should stay put in the camps, awaiting the arrival of Allied forces. The Senior British Commander at P.G. 21 (like others in camps around Italy) followed this command, refusing to allow the POWs to leave the camp. Unfortunately, Nazi Germany reacted to the Italian surrender by invading and occupying Italy, overrunning the camps before the Allies could reach them.
While some POWs managed to escape the Germans, most didn't. According to War Office records, more than 50,000 Allied soldiers were transported from Italian camps by cattle train to far worse conditions in Germany and Poland during the summer of 1943. Thousands are estimated to have died, either shot while trying to escape from the trains, or in the camps over the course of the following two winters.
Bowes was carted off to Stalag VII-A in Moosburg in southern Bavaria, near Munich. This was the largest POW camp in Nazi Germany during World War Two. When it was liberated in 1945, it housed nearly 80,000 POWs.
POWs playing cricket
(Source: ICRC)
After two months at Stalag VII-A, in around November 1943, Bowes was moved to Oflag VIII-F at Mährisch-Trübau in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Morevia (now Moravská Třebová in the Czech Republic). That camp held around 2,000 officers. He stayed there until early 1944 when, with the Soviets advancing Germany from the East, the camp was emptied out and eventually closed.
Bowes' final POW camp, his fifth, was Oflag 79, near Braunschweig in Germany (referred to as Brunswick by English speakers). Set-up in December 1943, it held mostly British Commonwealth officers transferred from camps in Italy. After D-Day and events such as the Battle of the Bulge, other POWs filled up the camp.
British POWs at Oflag 79 (Brunswick), April 1945
(Source: Public domain)
"'Big Bill' (as he was known throughout the camp) shone. With fascinating lectures in cricket, his conjuring, and his acting, among other things, he made a 100 percent contribution to the entertainment life of the camp" said Captain F. C. L. Raeder, an American who was held captive with Bowes.
A correspondent for The Yorkshire Evening Post, wrote about Bowes' time in Oflag 79 in a June 1947 article, praising the cricketer's magic and morale-boosting role:
“Bowes always took a leading part in camp activities. With Freddy Brown, the Surrey and England all-rounder, who was in the same camp, he organised sport programmes for his fellow-prisoners, and appeared in many stage productions. Perhaps his biggest stage success was in the part of a magician in the pantomime 'Aladdin,' which gave full rein to his considerable talents as a conjuror. But his greatest contribution to the life of the camp was his unfailing cheerfulness, no matter how bad the conditions or how gloomy the war news. He and Freddy Brown perhaps did more than any others in Oflag 79 to keep up the morale of prisoners.”
The moment Oflag 79 was liberated by the U.S. Ninth Army on 12 April 1945
(Source: Public domain)
Oflag 79 was liberated by the U.S. Ninth Army on 12 April 1945. Having spent almost 3 years in captivity, Bowes became a free man and within days was flown back to the U.K. He arrived home in time to celebrate the end of the war in Europe on V.E. Day on 8 May 1945.
After the war, Bowes was unable to properly return to first-class cricket, due to his age and the health effects of his imprisonment - he'd lost over 4 stone in weight by the time of his release. Retiring from playing cricket professionally in 1946, he became a cricket coach at Yorkshire and the cricket correspondent for The Yorkshire Post, and a forthright commentator for B.B.C. radio and television. And, Bill Bowes carried on entertaining with his magic ... including in a one-off post-war variety show called 'Press on Parade' (featuring Yorkshire journalists who were also talented artistes).
On 13 September 1949, Bowes was invited to join The Magic Circle, the prestigious London-based magic society. Given that the Yorkshireman lived in northern England, he probably didn't attend club meetings regularly, but he remained a member until 1965.
Without doubt, Bill Bowes played a vital morale-boosting role among the many thousands of prisoners he encountered in POW camps around Italy and Germany. Not only did he lead the organisation of fitness and sporting events, he used his magic skills to entertain men living in desperate conditions. On a communal table in barrack block, or on an improvised stage, Bowes' magic created moments of wonder that momentarily transported his fellow prisoners from the bleak conditions they found themselves in, to a happier place.
"Laughter and games meant a lot to us and we went to extraordinary lengths to provide them."
The Brunswick Club logo
(Source: The Brunswick Club)
Post-script: An interesting and inspiring epilogue to this story, is the creation of 'The Brunswick Boys' Club'. Seeking to make some good from their time in Oflag 79, the POWs came up with a plan to create a Boy's Club after they were liberated and back in the U.K. This was an organisation to provide amenities and activities for disadvantaged youngsters. Oflag 79's POWs worked out a plan for the club, elected trustees and even fund-raised for it while in captivity. Bill Bowes was one of the principal POWs behind the idea. After the war, the trustees set-up the club in Fulham, London, with the support of Prime Minister Clement Attlee. It still exists today, as The Brunswick Club for Young Persons, providing a living memorial to the sacrifices made by the Brunswick POWs. Read more about The Brunswick Club. (Bowes appeared on an episode of 'This is Your Life' in 1957, which paid tribute to fellow POW, Major Percy Flood, who was the lead founder of the club.)
Quoted text taken from Bowes' auto-biography, 'Express Deliveries' (1950), unless otherwise stated. A biography about Bill Bowes by Jeremy Lonsdale was published in 2024: 'An Unusual Celebrity: The Many Cricketing Lives of Bill Bowes' and is available on Amazon.
Look out for a future cricket-related blog, on Sir Julian Cahn, an eccentric entrepreneur with a passion for both cricket and magic.
Related article: 'Entertaining Hitler: Gogia Pasha, the gilly-gilly man (and war worker)', a blog about a wartime gilly-gilly man, Gogia Pasha who served in the A.R.P. Blog link.
Related article: 'Tommy Cooper: comedy legend at war', which tells the story of Tommy Cooper's wartime experiences in North Africa, including how the fez became his trademark. Blog link.
Research supported by The Good Magic Award 2021 from The Good Thinking Society
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