Magic at War

While this blog series focuses on how magicians helped fight World War Two, the history of magicians in warfare is a long one. Taking a break from World War Two, the blog below looks at five stories of magicians in captivity in the Nineteenth Century and in World War One. Giovanni Bartolomeo Bosco Italian-born Giovanni Bartolomeo Bosco (1793-1863) served in the Napoleonic army’s invasion of Russia in 1812. He was injured during the Battle of Borodino on the 7 September.  The fighting involved around 250,000 troops and left at least 68,000 killed and wounded, making Borodino the deadliest day of the Napoleonic Wars and the bloodiest single day in the history of warfare until World War One. To avoid capture, Bosco  pretended to be dead while lying on the battlefield. But a Cossack soldier started searching the dead bodies for loot. As the soldier searched Bosco, he realised Bosco was alive and took him prisoner. Little did he know Bosco picked the looter's pockets whil...

In late 1942, Lieutenant (later Major) Jasper Maskelyne, a famous stage magician serving  with the  British Army in North Africa, joined the regional branch of MI9. This was a secret military intelligence department set-up to help service personnel evade capture and, if captured, to  escape . MI9’s formal aims were to aid escapers by providing them with tools and training to escape; to train potential evaders to evade; to encourage secret routes along which either could travel; and to glean such intelligence as was in prisoner of war camps, or from escapers or evaders who made it home. Against these aims, Jasper played a key role. He trained frontline personnel on how to evade capture and to escape captivity, and he designed and issued escape and evasion devices to military personnel.   A signed photo of Major Jasper Maskelyne, Royal Engineers (Source: Author ’s  collection) Jasper was the ideal lecturer on this secretive topic. Lecturing to large groups of serv...