Magic at War

From wounded soldiers learning card tricks to psychiatrists, occupational therapists and modern clinical trials, the idea that magic might aid recovery has a surprisingly long history. They cost threepence each. One taught tricks with the hands and string; the other used matches, coins and playing cards. On their covers, a British soldier sits with a magician’s wand across his knees. Published in 1915, Tricks for the Trenches & Wards might look like another piece of First World War ephemera. Yet behind the tricks was an idea that would later develop into the deliberate use of magic in rehabilitation. Image: Tricks for the Trenches & Wards (1915) (author ’ s collection) Their author was Charles Folkard, an illustrator and former professional magician who wrote as ‘Draklof’ – Folkard backwards. The material was simple and portable. A wounded soldier needed no elaborate apparatus: a piece of string, a coin, a pack of cards or simply his own hands would do. Folkard had been prom...