Magic at War

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...

In this three-part blog, we tell the story of Wilfred ('Wilf') Ponsonby, a British army officer and  amateur  magician  captured  by the Germans in the  Battle  of France in 1940. In a remarkable set of events, Ponsonby ends up heading an escape  committee, writing coded letters to British  military intelligence, and supervising the use of secret escape devices. At the same time, he boosts the morale of his fellow POWs as the camp's resident magician. Ponsonby takes part in several escapes and makes it back to England before the war is over... An early escape, discovering magic and joining the army   Wilfred Montague Ponsonby (1905-1999) was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada. His mother was Canadian. His father, a British Army officer stationed there. The family left Canada when Wilfred was still a baby, to live in England, Ireland, and Malta, accompanying his father on different military assignments. On 4 August 1914, the day Britain de...