Magic at War

In this occult-themed blog, published on Halloween, stage magic  and ‘black magic’ overlap. In this remarkable story, a magician and his  confederate use a Ouija board, conjuring techniques and deceptive thinking to pull off the most celebrated prisoner-of-war escape of World War One. Picking-up on this idea, a  group of British POWs in World War Two attempted to repeat this success. Ouija - The Wonderful Talking Board A Ouija board is, typically, a flat wooden board about 2 feet by 1 foot in size. Painted or printed on one side of the board are all the letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0 to 9, ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ and the word ‘Goodbye.’ A teardrop-shaped device, known as a planchette (or an upturned small glass) manoeuvres around the board acting as a pointer. The idea of the board is that two or more people sit around the board, place their fingertips on the planchette, pose a question, and watch, dumfounded, as the planchette moves from letter to lett...

Mark Raffles, celebrated British magician, pioneering pickpocket entertainer and World War Two veteran, sadly passed away on 18 September 2022, aged an  incredible  100 years old. In his honour, this special blog recounts Raffles ’  life and wartime service. Becoming a professional Mark Raffles (Albert Taylor Jnr.) was born in M anchester in January 1922.* His first professional performance, aged 16, was in 1938 at the Queen's Park Hippodrome in Manchester. He adopted the stage name Ray St. Clair, much later changing this to Mark Raffles. Because of a debilitating stammer, he performed a silent magic act.  Ray St. Clair / Mark Raffles (1940s) (Source: Mark Raffles) War work in the Blitz He was only in the second year of his performing career when Britain declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939. Initially Raffles was too young for military service, but when he turned 18 years old in early 1940, the law required him to register to be called-up.  The a...

This final  blog  in the series (of four  blogs)  tells 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. The Japanese Trick   A major concern of the POWs moved to the camps at Nong Pladuk was their proximity to an engineering complex and storage depot, known as Hashimoto’s, which was a potential target for Allied bombers. Fergus Anckorn ended up living perilously close to the complex.   “My hut and its air raid trench were about ten yards from the edge of Hashimoto’s yard and I felt sure I’d get killed by our own bombers.”   By comparison with other camps, the work was basic, but the conditions were horrible, and the guards were bullies.   Nong Pladuk POW Camp, Thailand (Source: IWM) To brighten things up in the camp the POWs started a concert party, called the Harboured Lights, which Anckorn joined.    In mid-February ...