L. H. Branson

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Branson's major work Indian Conjuring (1922).

Major Lionel Hugh Branson (8 April 1879 – April 1946) was a British magician and officer of the British Indian Army.[1]

Biography

Educated at

9th Bombay Infantry
.

He served with the 9th Bombay Infantry during the

10th Bombay Infantry (later 110th Mahratta Light Infantry
) on 30 May 1902.

He was promoted

captain on 11 February 1908 and made a company commander on 1 October 1910. He landed in Mesopotamia
with his regiment in 1914 and was wounded in action on the 3 December 1914.

He was appointed Assistant Censor (graded as a General Staff Officer, 3rd grade) from 20 December 1914 to 31 March 1915 and Assistant Censor (graded as a General Staff Officer, 2nd grade) from 1 April 1915 to 31 March 1917. He was then given a Special Appointment (graded as a General Staff Officer, 2nd grade) from 1 April 1917 to 23 October 1917. In late 1914 he founded and was the editor of The Basrah Times, a newspaper.

Branson was promoted temporary

major
in July 1916 and was confirmed as major in April 1917, with seniority from 1 September 1915. He was mentioned in despatches in the London Gazette 5 April 1916, 10 May 1916 and 12 March 1918. He retired from the Indian Army on account of ill-health 22 June 1923.

Branson had incorporated his magic skills into his military service.[3] His stage magician name was Lionel Cardac.[4] He was a member of The Magic Circle, and devoted a whole chapter to debunking the Indian rope trick in his book Indian Conjuring (1922).[5] He offered a large sum of money to anyone who could perform the Indian rope trick, nobody ever won the money.[6]

Branson was a debunker of spiritualism. He wrote that mediumship was the result of conjurer tricks and fraudulent phenomena.[7]

He was an author of magic books under the pen name Elbiquet. He wrote a biography of himself A Lifetime of Deception: Reminiscences of a Magician (1953).

Publications

  • A Text Book of Magic as Elbiquet (1913)
  • Supplementary Magic as Elbiquet (1917)
  • Indian Conjuring (1922)
  • A Lifetime of Deception: Reminiscences of a Magician (1953)

References

  1. ^ Obituary, The Times, 26 April 1946, p.7
  2. ^ "No. 27462". The London Gazette. 8 August 1902. pp. 5089–5093.
  3. ISBN 978-0-313-23397-5
  4. ISBN 978-0-226-75687-5
  5. ISBN 978-0-7661-4231-2
  6. ISBN 978-0-486-28228-2
  7. ^ Branson, Lionel Hugh. (1953). A Lifetime of Deception: Reminiscences of a Magician. Hale. p. 85

External links

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