Val Walker

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Val Walker

(1918)
Born England

Valentine Augustus Walker (15 Feb 1890 - 17 Mar 1969) (also known as Val A 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. Val Walker 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] His most famous escape was "The Tank in the Thames" where he was bolted in to a steel tank lowered in to the river Thames from the Sea-Scout Training Ship, Northampton on the 20th August 1920. He escaped in 20 seconds.[5] He was married in 1913 to Ethel Dora Harris, the daughter of Thomas Daniel Harris and his wife Emma Ellson. He retired from the stage in 1924, returning briefly in 1939 , under the name of 'Val Enson', with an illusion called "The Aquamarine Girl"[6]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.geniimagazine.com/wiki/index.php/Valentine_Augustus_Walker MagicPedia
  2. ↑ 1911 Census - 64 Grantham Road, Sparkbrook, Birmingham
  3. ↑ "Val A Walker - The Original Tank Escape". Retrieved 2014-01-26. 
  4. ↑ For online evidence see "Val A Walker - The Radium Girl". Retrieved 2014-01-26.  Another source is to be found in the Tad Ware article in Magicol magazine (see Further reading)
  5. ↑ "Val A Walker - The Tank in the Thames". Retrieved 2014-01-26. 
  6. ↑ "Val A Walker - The Aquamarine Girl". Retrieved 2014-01-26. 

Further reading

  • Tad Ware, "The Radium Girl", in Magicol Magazine, pub by Magic Collectors' Association, 2004
  • Val Walker, written recollections published in Abracadabra magazine in 1968 (full details unavailable)

External links

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