Working in an archive you never know where your enquiries will take you, just like the question about an estate agent from Ferndown, which led to a box of records concerning one of Britain’s best magicians.
William Stickland, known as Bill, ran an estate agents on Victoria Road, Ferndown, but he was also an entertainer who was awarded an MBE for services to Magic.
Born in 1904, Stickland first became interested in magic after seeing a performance at a Sunday School party and receiving a magic set for Christmas. He started performing magic as ‘The Wessex Wizard’ and was known for his outrageous puns and clever magical devices.
In 1932 he attended the dinner of the British Ring of the International Brotherhood of Magicians and to his surprise ended up becoming its secretary. He intended this to be a temporary arrangement as he was worried that he was not right for the post but ended up continuing in the post until his death in 1984. In that time the membership of the society increased from 62 to over 1600. He was also the first British president of the International Brotherhood of Magicians from 1970-71 and an honorary member of the Inner Magic Circle.
During the Second World War Bill and his wife Gwendoline, known as Poppy, joined E.N.S.A and entertained the troops with their act, ‘Marius and Mariette’. They were part of the first troop of entertainers to cross the Rhine and performed in front of thousands in Hamburg. Poppy was the only female life member of The British Ring at the time of her death in 1965.
Stickland often worked with sports equipment and one of his most famous tricks was with a tennis racquet that was magically restrung. In later life he became obsessed with dice magic after winning an award for a couple of dice tricks. He created a whole show of these tricks and performed as ‘Diceman’. He also collected dice and his home at ‘The Wand’, Dudsbury Crescent, was full of them. He also owned dice alarm clocks, soap, decanters and shirts. One of the documents in the collection is a ‘Dicey-Gram’ sent from Hollywood, where Bill was performing. He would also sign letters ‘dice-incerley’.
Bill died on 25th May 1984, but is fondly remembered by the world of magic.