My father Harry Randall, who has died aged 93 due to complications from Covid, was a technical photographer working for the petrochemical industry, but more important to him were his activities outside work, as an officer in the Territorial Army and as a noted conjuror under the name the Great Harini.
It was through appearing at various military events with the TA that he was able to develop his act as the Great Harini, and become a member of the Magic Circle. Harry performed all over the UK, for schools and clubs, as well as for charity events, and remained a popular magic act until shortly before his death.
Born in south London, to Kate Thomas, a housewife, and Harry Randall, an army cook, he was an evacuee during the second world war, in which his father served on the beaches of Dunkirk, and survived. With a chaotic childhood as the eldest of a large wartime family, my father left school at 15, educating himself instead at local libraries. He joined the navy for national service, where he learned to sail, row and speak Urdu.
In the 1950s he was the double bass player for the Joe Morris Quintet, a popular dance-hall band playing the circuit at venues such as the Rainbow/Astoria in Finsbury Park. He met Iris Pirie, a singer, through the band, and they were married in 1956.
In 1960 Harry and Iris travelled to Australia as “Ten-Pound-Poms”. After a two-year stint there during which, among other things, Harry dug trenches for the sewer systems of Sydney, they returned to the UK, settling in Cambridgeshire and later moving to Essex.
Iris died in 2016 and two years ago Harry returned to live in London. He is survived by two daughters, Helen and me, four grandchildren, Jacob, Ashley, Adam and Saffiya, and six siblings, Brian, Maureen, Valerie, Christine, Jon and Lynn.
