Officers 2009/10

The Bristol Society of Magic

As I said earlier the Society was founded on the 8th February 1921. The founder members of the Society were:-

President
E. H. C. Wethered

Vice-President
Prof. Herwin

Treasurer
Ernest Bradford

Secretary
Ray White

Committee Members
Vaughan Coleman
F. Edward Cook
Arthur Chapman
Edgard Haines
Wilfred Huggins
Will Jordan
George Perrett
Ernest Toogood

In later years Ray White wrote an article on the Birth of The Bristol Society of Magic and makes very interesting reading. The article was originally published in the first edition of the 'The Bristol Magician' December 1951.

From that first meeting the object of the Society has been to promote and sustain the interests of magic and the allied arts.

88 yrs old on 8th February 2009

Ray White, December 1951.

I trust I may be forgiven a few personal notes but these have a bearing on my reason for starting the ball rolling . At the age of 11, I became inter-ested in magic after witnessing the performances of Amasis, Pharos, David Devant and Chung Ling Soo - the first two appearing at the Colston Hall, and the latter two at the Bedminister Hippodrome in the first two or three months of its existence.

After four years of reading magical lore and continuous practice, I gave my first public performance at a local institution in 1911 This preamble serves to lead up to the fact that, during those four years when I became well and truly bitten with the magic bug I did not come across any local magicians until 1911, when I heard that there was a conjuror appearing at a public hall in Clifton. Needless to say I made a point of being present, and the performer turned out to be none other than our esteemed President! It was an excellent performance and I felt so ashamed of my own humble efforts that I did not have the courage to go behind after the show and introduce myself, such as I wanted to!

In the years following, however, I had the pleasure of making the acquaint-ance of Fred Vallance, Edgar Haines, F Edward Cook, Ernest Bradford, Vaughan Chapman, Wilfred Huggins, Ernest Toogood and several others, in fact, I was very surprised to find so many gentlemen interested in the magic art living in Bristol.

Early in 1920, I opened a magical department in my father s business in Vic-toria Street and it was here that I met many magicians and the idea of found-ing a Magic Society was born. I discussed this project with my old friend, Vaughan Colman and one or two others, who encouraged me to go ahead and arrange a meeting. So it came about that, after sending out 23 invita-tions to all those magi whose addresses I knew, a meeting was eventually arranged at my house in Coronation Road on 8 February 1921. I was ex-tremely gratified to find that everyone to whom I had written attended that inaugural meeting, when it was unanimously decided that a Society should be formed.

Mr E.H.C. Wethered was elected President, Prof Herwin Vice-President, Mr Ernest Bradford Hon Treasurer, and I was elected Hon Secretary, although at that time I adopted the title of Allan Dean .

The Committee elected consisted of Messrs Vaughan Colman, F Edward Cook, Arthur Chapman, Edgar Haines, Wilfred Huggins, Will Jordan, George Perrett, Ernest Toogood and Ernest Ward. The Rules of the Soci-ety were roughly drafted out at this meeting and finally approved at a sub-sequent meeting. As Secretary it was left to me to find suitable headquar-ters and after much scouting around, the Cafe Baldwin in Baldwin Street became our first rendezvous.

These premises, however, were not entirely satisfactory but owing to the lack of alternative accommodation at the time, we were compelled to re-main at the Cafe Baldwin for a matter of five or six months. During that short time our Membership increased very nicely. We eventually settled down again at a photographer s studio in Park Street and held our monthly meeting there for a period of about two years. It was during this time that the Society gave its first public show, at the Folk House, College Green, and for a first attempt it was a huge success. Those appearing on the pro-grame were Messrs Wethered, Bradford, Cook, Haines, Toogood, Cuthbert and myself. During the interval there was a surprise for the audience in the person of Ching Wu, who came across in full regalia from the Bristol Hippo-drome and who treated us to a fine display of magic. Altogether it was a worthy beginning to the Societys public displays.

Once again we had to look around for larger and more convenient head-quarters owing to the growth of the Membership and these we found in the Cavandish Club in High Street. Many headquarters, and after some five years or so as Secretary, I was able to convince the President and Mem-bers that I had developed writer s cramp and they were kind enough to ac-cept my resignation of that office and our good friend Vaughan Colman effi-ciently filled the position of Hon Secretary for two or three years. A short while afterwards Ernest Bradford was compelled to relinquish the office of Hon Treasurer, owing to pressure of business and he was followed by the late Will Jordan who, as most of us remember, carried out his duties so con-scientiously and efficiently. Will Jordan will always be remembered as one of the stalwarts of the Society.

The Cavandish Club remained as our headquarters until the outbreak of war, when shortly afterwards with great regret, it was decided to suspend activi-ties until brighter times arrived.

Then came the great day when the BSM was re-established and, as most of you are aware, it has grown stronger and stronger and has increased its ac-tivities and programes each year, so much so that it is now regarded as one of the leading provincial Magical Societies, a status which surely has been achieved by the untiring efforts and support of our President His Honour Ernest Wethered, and by the energies of Roy Darnley (who became the Sec-retary when the Society was reformed) also Clarence Parker (our present hard-working scribe), and several others to whom we are grateful and appre-ciative of their quiet efforts in the interests of our Society.