Ken Pumfrey Remembered

By Ron Gordon

I first met Ken when he appeared at his first meeting of the Society and we immediately formed a lasting friendship, possibly because we were of an age that we both could relate to. We both started our magic life performing with concert parties and our paths followed similar routes. Unfortunately, time passes too quickly; I just wish it could have lasted longer.

It was an honour and a privilege to have Ken as my Secretary during my time as President. Ken could always be relied upon to do everything by the book and very conscientiously, even down to recording the start and finish of a meeting to the minute.

Although we sometimes made fun of Ken's obsession with time keeping, this was something he carried forward from his working life and Ken wouldn’t have been Ken without it.

One of the many things I admired about Ken was, as the years passed, he began to have problems with his hands shaking, but that didn’t stop him performing. Lesser mortals would have given up long ago; it should be a lesson to us all.

Ken had a vast knowledge of magic in general and he was always ready to assist anyone who required help, be they young, old, beginner or expert; magic was the common denominator.

Thank you for the many happy memories

Goodbye good friend, you will not be forgotten.

Ron.

 

Ken Pumfrey - Random Memories

By Peter Nicol

Ken’s Magical Life is well documented in his articles written for the club magazine.

My first knowledge of Ken was when a message was sent to me by a well known Banchory thespian Graham Wilson – “Tell Peter Nicol a magician has come to stay in Banchory”.

Shortly after I received the information I met Ken at the “Smoker’s Dinner” at the Sportsmans Club.I suggested that I pick up Ken on society nights. For the next nineteen years we travelled together to the meetings in Aberdeen .

During one of our conversations we discovered that we both knew Ken Brooke.

When Mandy our daughter was quite young, Helen and I were in London and visited Ken – having helped him a couple of times when he was lecturing in Scotland .

We visited mid week and perhaps if we had been at Ken’s Magic Place on the Saturday we might have made the acquaintance of Ken Pumfrey twenty years earlier!

As we all know Ken was very precise in his actions. He also had a very good memory. Over the years during the summer months we would meet racing cyclists competing on the Raemoir Road . In the spring Ken would say “ Watch out for cyclists, they begin their competitions this Tuesday ”. Sure enough they would appear, heads down and going like the clappers!

Our usual routine on the return journey from the meetings would be to discuss the magic performed at the society that night and then continue reminiscing whilst tucking into the supper prepared by Vera.

Fortunately for me quite a number of lecturers would stay in Banchory at a B&B just down the road from Ken’s. We would have some very interesting discussions travelling to Banchory and on occasions they would accept Ken’s invitation to have supper at 65 Bredero Drive .

On one occasion Ken was furious with a lecturer from Australia who complained that he had to travel out to Banchory with what seemed to be a huge amount of luggage. He was flying out the following morning and felt he should have had accommodation in Aberdeen instead. Ken commented quite forcibly “ If you had given me the correct information re your travel timings when asked for we would have made the necessary arrangements”. The lecturer definitely went to bed with a flea in his ear!

I shall never forget the time when Bill Seagraves, Bob Gordon, Bill Duncan and myself were invited to entertain the residents of Inchmarlo House ( organised by Ken).

Ken was in his element and going down extremely well with

the assembled audience. Bill Seagraves and I both agreed that Ken could have done the whole show without batting an eyelid. His enthusiasm was amazing and his performance style showed the tremendous experience gathered over a lifetime of entertaining. None of us knew at that time the huge amount of work he had done in the entertainment business.

Ken’s son Alan approached the society with a suggestion that the society put on a Magic Show in Banchory. Due to Alan’s organisational skills the show was a complete sell out.

The following year a second show was put on by the society

and again it was a huge success.

Ken’s Rope and Rings routine was the envy of all the society members. Routined to perfection with wonderful audience participation, laced with tried and tested gags and a delight to watch.

My most special memory was when the pantechnicon containing magic belonging to the late Frank Farrow arrived at Ken’s house. It was arranged that Ken would phone me when it arrived and I would go down and help him sort the magic.

Little did we know at that stage the huge amount of material that would be offloaded on it’s arrival! We were like two kids in Santa’s Grotto, trying to match up instructions with props.

We worked late on Friday night, I came back Saturday, returned Sunday and took a day off my work on the Monday. I can’t recall if and when we stopped to eat we were so carried away with the variety of magical effects on display.

I worked a word processor at the time and volunteered to make a list of the books. I didn’t realise there was over 600 of them. It took me a while to record them all. As a follow up Bill Seagraves and Ron Gordon added their knowledge of current magic and eventually most of the props were sold. A sum of over £4,000 was sent off to a Hospice in the south of England .

 

Ken and Vera were wonderful company. I recall on one occasion when Tom Owen and his wife Margaret were staying with us. Helen and I decided to invite Ken and Vera for a meal as they knew Tom and Margaret from the many conventions they attended.

If you know Tom - it was a hilarious evening from start to finish. Ken was on form and I added my twopence worth.

By the time Ken and Vera left we were all hysterical!

I got some funny looks from our neighbours the following day. It had been a very noisy evening!

My one regret was that due to my own ongoing illness in 2009 I was unable to give Ken the support he needed after Vera’s death.

Farewell Ken and Vera – wonderful memories – I’ll miss you both.