Magic at War

The first of four blogs telling the incredible wartime experiences of Fergus Anckorn, an amateur magician who used magic to survive captivity and slavery as a POW in the Far East during World War Two. Learning magic Born in late 1918, at the close of World War One, Fergus Anckorn started learning magic from an early age. He performed his first paid show aged seven. As a teenager, he befriended magician Major Lionel Branson, a major in the Indian Army who lived nearby. When Branson became vice-president of The Magic Circle (a British-based magic society), he encouraged Anckorn to join, which he did in 1937. At age 18, Anckorn became the youngest member of The Magic Circle (and years later became its oldest practising member). Becoming a magician-soldier When war was declared in 1939, the authorities conscripted 21-year-old Anckorn into the British Army. After completing recruit and specialist training, he was assigned to the 118th Field Regiment Royal Artillery. The 118th was tasked wit...

On the evening of 14 May 1940, four days after Germany invaded France and the Low Countries, newly appointed Secretary of State for War, Anthony Eden, gave a speech on the B.B.C. Home Service: “ Since the war began, the government have received countless enquiries from all over the kingdom from men of all ages who are for one reason or another not at present engaged in military service, and who wish to do something for the defence of their country. Well, now is your opportunity. We want large numbers of such men in Great Britain, who are British subjects, between the ages of seventeen and sixty-five…to come forward and offer their services…The name of the new force which is now to be raised will be ‘The Local Defence Volunteers'". And so, the L.D.V. (later renamed the 'Home Guard' by Winston Churchill) was formed. Within 24 hours, a quarter of a million men signed up.  Home Guard armband (Source: Imperial War Museum) The L.D.V. – or Home Guard – consisted mainly of tho...