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...

During World War Two, Lionel King (real name Lionel Klimsch) was one of hundreds of magicians employed by national governments to entertain sailors, soldiers and airmen.   When the war started, not all men and women were required to join the armed forces. Some were too young or too old, in reserved occupations, or failed the medical standards. King was too old to be conscripted. Instead, he served in a different capacity, as an entertainer-in-uniform. Lionel King - The King of Magic (c1945) (Source:  ‘Card   Tricks Without Skill, ’  edited by Paul Clive) Born just before the start of the Twentieth Century, Lionel King was an established act in the British music halls by the onset of World War Two. A professional magician he was a long standing member of The Magic Circle. Billing himself as ‘The King of Cards,’ or ‘Joker-Ace High,’ he earned a living with an act which used just a pack of playing cards and his personality to entertain the audience. His act was the epit...