The Spook and The Commandant

Ref: 4672

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{detailed description}This is the story, by one of the two participants, of one of the greatest occult deceptions of all time where at stake was not money but their own lives. Imprisoned in a Turkish POW camp in the first world war, two Royal Flying Corps officers succeeded in convincing their Commandant, by a series of adroit tricks, that they were in touch with a spirit from the other world upon whose supernatural powers they could call, including his guidance to the discovery of buried treasure! Unbelievably, the interventions of the spirit called The Spook, and the gullibility of the Commandant, were exploited to pave a path to freedom with obtaining a transfer from prison camp to hospital as the first step. Then the second deception took place as Flight Lieutenant Hill feigned madness and deluded the authorities into accepting that he was a religious maniac until he and his fellow conspirator were eventually repatriated. After the war Cedric Hill became a member of the Magic Circle, and his ability is superbly illustrated by these two splendid ploys.

Biographical note:
In 1919, after the events described in The Spook and the Commandant, Cedric Hill was repatriated to Australia, returning in 1920 to be recommissioned as Flying Officer in the RAF. He served in Palestine, Egypt and Turkey, and in 1925 was posted to England. In 1930 he flew solo to Australia in a Mark I Gypsy Moth in an attempt to break the record, but crashed at Atamboea on the island of Timor with only the Timor Sea between him and success. In 1931 on his return to England he won the St. George's Challenge Cup at Bisley for rifle shooting. In 1933 he was posted to Malta and attached to the Navy as RAF Engineer Officer in the aircraft carrier Glorious. At Tangmere, Sussex, in 1934 he commanded first No. 1 Fighter Squadron and two years later the RAF Station there. In 1942 he served in Abadan in command of a fighter wing and subsequently in Tehran commanded all RAF units in Persia. On his retirement he spent several years flying in the ATA.
Some eight years ago he started to write The Spook and the Commandant with the aid of his diaries and notes, but regrettably he did not live to see it published. He died in March 1975 while the book was in production.

{Author / Publisher / Date}by Group Captain C. W. Hill
published by William Kimber 1975 1st edn. 201pp 15x23
{condition}light foxing to edges otherwise good. d/j has small closed tears at head and foot otherwise good
{delivery info}