Val Walker

Valentine Augustus Walker (14 Feb 1890 - 18 Mar 1969) (also known as Val Walker and Val Enson^[1]) was an English magician, escape artist and illusion designer. He was born in Moseley, Birmingham to Joseph Walker. a landscape gardener and his wife Emma, worked as an electrical apparatus maker^[2], later serving in the Royal Navy and was billed as the "Wizard of the Navy".^[3] Walker is credited as the designer of the Radium Girl illusion.^[4] He is also said to have been the designer of the John Bull Straitjacket, which was created for a challenge to Houdini in 1926.^[5] He was married in 1913 to Ethel Dora Harris, the daughter of Thomas Daniel Harris and his wife Emma Ellson.

References

1. ^ http://www.geniimagazine.com/wiki/index.php/Valentine_Augustus_Walker MagicPedia
2. ^ 1911 Census - 64 Grantham Road, Sparkbrook, Birmingham
3. ^ "Jim Stewart's Houdini Connections". http://www.houdini-connections.co.uk/4-info/Topics/sj-John%20Bull.htm. Retrieved 2007-02-26. 
4. ^ For online evidence see "part of an old magic magazine reproduced on the Magic Cave site". http://www.marlowj.freeserve.co.uk/Pictures/magic15.JPG. Retrieved 2007-02-26.  A better source is to be found in the Tad Ware article in Magicol magazine (see Further reading)
5. ^ "Jim Stewart's Houdini Connections". http://www.houdini-connections.co.uk/4-info/Topics/sj-John%20Bull.htm. Retrieved 2007-02-26. 

Further reading

• Tad Ware, "The Radium Girl", in Magicol Magazine, pub by Magic Collectors' Association, (date unknown)
• Val Walker, written recollections published in Abracadabra magazine in 1968 (full details unavailable)

External links

• A picture from the State Library of Victoria, Australia, showing Val Walker in naval uniform.
• Discussions about Val Walker on the Genii forum website