Robert Enock (1883-1916)

PERSONAL DETAILS

Full name: Robert Enock.
Known as: Roy.
Date of birth: Wednesday, 10th October, 1883.
Birthplace: Islington, London, England.
Date of death: Friday, 10th November, 1916 (aged 33 years).
Cause of death: ruptured right kidney - "fatally injured by a horse. He was moving house and leading a blind horse and cart with furniture. The horse stumbled and kicked him in the stomach, he bled to death internally"- Doris Tompsett
Place of death: Winchmore Hill, London, England.
Buried: Friends Burial Ground, Winchmore Hill, London, England.

FAMILY

PARENTS

Edwin Enock(1849-1924)
Edwin Enock
(1849-1924)

Emily Maria Enock (née Jones) (1855-1937)
Emily Maria Enock
(née Jones)
(1855-1937)

WIFE

Violet Isabella Enock (née Casburn) (1891-1983).

Violet had a child prior to marrying Roy: Iris Evelyn Guy (previously Lake) (née Casburn) (1908-2000), and following Roy's death she had twin daughters with Fred Ellesden: Dorothy Rose Baker (née Enock) (1932-) and Grace Winifred Worley (née Enock) (1932-).

Date of marriage: 1911.
Place of marriage: Freebridge Lynn, Norfolk, England.

CHILDREN

RESIDENCES

1885 - 55, Tabley Road, Upper Holloway, London, England.

1888-1889 - 234, Park Road, Hornsey, London, England.

1891 - 11, Northwood Road, Hornsey, London, England.

1893-1894 - 23, Gladsmuir Road, Highgate, London, England.

1898 - 1, Gladsmuir Road, Highgate, London, England.

1901-1903 - 6, Hazeldean Road, Stonebridge, Willesden, London, England.

1908 - 16, The Broadway, Winchmore Hill, London, England.

Approx. location of property.

1909 - 10, Derby Avenue, North Finchley, London, England.

1911 - 91, Woodberry Avenue, Winchmore Hill, London, England.

1913 - "Ivanhoe," Finchley Park, North Finchley, London, England.

Unable to locate property.

1913-1916 - 5, Queen's Grove Road, Chingford, London, England.

Demolished.

OCCUPATION

1901: Mechanical Engineering apprenticeship

1914: Fitter and Turner

1914-1916 - MILITARY SERVICE

Force: Royal Naval Air Service

20th August 1914 - 31st March 1915

Ship or Unit: Pembroke III
Regimental No.: F105
Rating: Petty Officer Mechanic

1st March 1916 - 10th November 1916

Ship or Unit: President II / R.N.A.S. - Chingford / Dover Air Station
Regimental No.: F105
Rating: Chief Petty Officer Mechanic 3rd grade

MAGICIAN & ENTERTAINER

"I never remembered my father as I was very young when he died, but mother used to tell me about him. He invented several conjuring tricks and she used to help make them up for sale."- Doris Tompsett.

Robert was also manager of the 'Willesden Entertainers.'

The Milk Pitcher

"In his Who's Who in Magic, p. 418, Barton Whaley credits the milk pitcher to Nikola, in collaboration with Roy Enoc, in 1917, although he contradicts this in Encyclopedic Dictionary of Magic, 1989, p. 447, where he puts it at Richard Himber's door. The source of the Nikola-Enoc attribution is apparently a trick called “Transit of Wine”, described in Nikola's 1934 book, Magical Masterpieces, p. 112. This trick uses a double-walled drinking glass, a principle about which Nikola writes: “As far back as one can remember, there was an old toy consisting of a double-walled drinking glass containing a fluid between the inner and outer walls, the idea presumably being to show a vessel that could be inverted without the liquid escaping – a not very profound mystery.” Enoc designed his glass for a better illusion, and later converted it to a jug. It would vanish half its contents by allowing the liquid within the double walls to flow on demand into the central chamber of a celluloid insert. The liquid wasn't poured into another container, but rather it vanished from the transparent glass or jug. An opaque liquid was needed to conceal its two levels as is moved from within the double wall to the central compartment. Enoc settled on ink, and employed the jug and a glass to effect a transposition of ink from one container to the other. “Enoc's Ink Trick”, as it came to be called, was marketed sometime in or before 1914 (see The Magic Wand, Vol. 4 No. 45, May 1914, p. 726) and enjoyed popularity for a time. Nikola made modifications and further elaborations to the construction of the gimmicked jug. The principles of the double-walled container and secretly shifted volume of liquid are shared with the Milk Pitcher, but the effect and operation are significantly different." - Taken from https://www.conjuringcredits.com/doku.php?id=misc:milk_pitcher

COMMENTS ABOUT ROY

"He was about number 4 in the Fleet Air Arm right at the start of the First World War." - Grace Worley

"We've got records of Roy Enock inventing the aeroplane joystick." - Grace Worley

"Violet was a performer on the stage in the music halls, and knew Houdini and the performer Little Titch. Roy was also on the stage. He was a ventriloquist with a doll called Joe. During the First World War he flew with the Royal Flying Corps, but was killed on a day off, when he was kicked by a horse as he tried to move the family to a new billet by horse and cart across a furrowed field. Iris was there when he died." - Richard Worley

Page updated 26th September, 2021.