Magic at War

In Germany’s largest prisoner of war camp, Stalag IV-B, a captured British parachutist learns magic from a magician-POW. Their shared interest in magic distracts them from the deprivations of prison life, bonds them in friendship, and gives the ‘apprentice’ a lifelong skill.   Andrew Corbett Mavor (1922-2016) grew up in Glasgow, Scotland. He started his working career in the Clyde shipyards until war intervened. In 1939, aged 17, Mavor left Glasgow to join the British Army. After junior soldier infantry training with The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, he transferred to The Royal Signals, the British Army’s communications specialists.   Fast forward to June 1944, 2991985 Lance Corporal Mavor was a radio operator in the British 6th Airborne Division, attached to the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, part of their 3rd Parachute Brigade.  After a year of training for airborne operations, Mavor and his 1st Canadian colleagues were about to take part in Operation Neptu...

When entertainers use stage names, it’s almost impossible to research any military connection they have, unless you know their real name. The story below was almost never told, until I spotted, by accident, that the home address of magician Lincoln Lee printed in an old magic magazine matched that of a Lancaster bomber navigator called Leslie Matthews. After that quirky discovery, the Lee/Matthews story – and his time as a POW at the Barbed Wire University – soon revealed itself.    A magical start   Leslie Albert Matthews (1913-1994) was born in London, England. By the 1930s, he’d established himself as a well-regarded professional magician, performing under the stage name ‘Lincoln Lee.’   He was an early member of The Institute of Magicians (a society for magicians founded in 1934) and performed at their first annual dinner:   “Lincoln Lee coupled stories with his tricks and the wand vanish, die box and Buddha mystery passed through his hands to the accom...