The previously male-only society is now welcoming her up as a whole member after more than 30 years when Britain’s elite Magic Circle expelled her for posing as a man to obtain admission.
Sophie Lloyd was ejected by the London-based foreign secret group after she posed as a man in 1991 to win membership.
However, the society’s first woman chair Laura London launched a search to find Lloyd and sorry after her story was made public last year.
She did later live abroad, where she will eventually receive a membership certificate on Thursday at a special ceremony held at the organization’s London headquarters.
After all these times tracking Sophie, it is so interesting… I didn’t tell you how happy we are as a nation to welcome her up, London told BBC Radio.
Before revealing herself as a person, Lloyd posed as Raymond Lloyd for 18 months.
However, members of the group that voted to accept people in September 1991 were so upset by her “deliberate fraud” that they decided to reject her.
Jenny Winstanley, the later magician, who hired Lloyd to help her show that people magicians were just as good as males, was actually involved in the fraud.
In her words,” I performed a 20-minute display in front of 200 persons, three auditors, and I spoke to the auditor for an hour and a quarter,” Lloyd said, referring to how she managed to pull the wool over everyone’s eye.
Winstanley, who passed away in 2004, called the organization to discuss after the Magic Circle changed its mind.
” We received a notice saying Raymond had been expelled two days later,” said Lloyd.
” We don’t get our minds around it,” the statement read. We simply said,” Come on, it’s funny, it’s amusing,” but they didn’t believe that, and Jenny was unforgivably snubbed.
Before finally moving abroad, Lloyd continued to perform magic for 11 times in an anti-bullying selection show following the expulsion.
She claimed that the Magic Circle had completely changed in the 30 years since she was expelled, adding that Jenny may have loved it if she had been there.
London claimed that Winstanley’s appearance on Thursday would moreover give her a chance to honor her extraordinary factor to magic and her bold trick performed at the Magic Circle’s expense.
She said,” I really think she’s a wonderful person and I know she’d had loved to be here. I only wish I could have met her myself, more than anything.”
Around 20 artists founded The Magic Circle in a cafe in London’s Chinatown area in 1905.
Members must swear not to divulge special secrets.
Women account for only about 5 % of the society’s 1,700 members despite having been accepted to the Magic Circle for more than 30 years.
Yet, the body claims that the 10-18-year-old time group is currently experiencing an increase in participation.
