For more than 80 years, it was the happy preserve of men who enjoyed showing off their boxes of tricks to whoever would watch.

But on the outside, there was more than one talented 'witch' who wanted to join the Magic Circle. 

That fact was evidenced this week by the news that the once all-male society wants to apologise to actress Sophie Lloyd, who became the first woman to join the group when she posed a man in 1990.

She was then kicked out when she owned up to her deception on the day in 1991 that members voted to admit the opposite sex. 

Despite the public call by the Magic Circle, which was founded in 1905, Ms Lloyd has so far maintained her vanishing act and is nowhere to be found.

Yet she was far from the first woman to fall foul of the no women rule, which was originally imposed because male members believed women could not keep secrets. 

In 1972, former cabaret dancer Diane Matthews burnt her bra outside the Magic Circle's London headquarters in protest at not being allowed into the group.

Five years later, Morine Vickers also failed in her bid to force the Magic Circle to accept female members. 

The same fate befell talented 18-year-old trickster Stacey Lee in 1985, despite the fact she had appeared on TV alongside magical megastar Paul Daniels.

The Magic Circle was not always totally opposed to women performers, however.  

In 1949, female magician Paula Baird became the first woman to be allowed to perform for members of the Magic Circle at their gilded dinner.

She wowed onlookers with her trick of picking 'innumerable lighted cigarettes out of thin air', the Daily Mail reported at the time. 

But, despite her impressive performance, any attempt to actually join the organisation would have been rebuffed.  

Sophie Lloyd joined the Magic Circle under the pseudonym of Raymond Lloyd. 

The glasses-wearing teenager enjoyed making a £5 note burst into flames and then reappear.

She was coached by fellow magician Jenny Winstanley, who had initially hoped to herself be the Magic Circle's first woman member.

Ms Lloyd successfully fooled a judging panel in her 20-minute entrance exam and also failed to arouse suspicion when she had a 90-minute pint with her examiner afterwards. 

She then spent 18 months 'masquerading as a man', performing at shows around the country until the group voted to allow women in September 1991.

The change was backed by 78 per cent of the group's 1,200-strong membership. 

The year earlier, a move to admit women failed by one per cent.

The day the change was approved, Ms Lloyd revealed her gender to the society, and she was swiftly expelled for her 'deliberate deception'.

Ms Lloyd said after she was discovered: 'It wasn't just literally putting on a wig, glasses and the baggy suit and going out and doing it.

'I had to study the character for two years.'

The magician also told entertainment publication The Stage: 'They said women were not good enough to get into the Magic Circle, that we didn't have the right attitude. 

'All we have proved is that women can be good enough.'

Ms Winstanley, who died in a car crash in 2004, reflected on the incident in a radio interview at the time. She said: 'We really wanted to prove that women are as good as men.'

The Magic Circle's then-president, David Berglas, said: 'They set this up to put one over on the Magic Circle.

'I do not take the whole thing seriously. If it had not been so underhand it would have been quite amusing.

'They have not done themselves any favours at all.'  

After Ms Matthews carried out her stunt in 1972, a spokesman for the Magic Circle said: 'There is absolutely no chance of us changing our minds.' 

But Magic Circle member David Nixon was at odds with the group's no women policy, saying: 'I am very much in favour of women joining. They would brighten the place up.'

Ms Matthews' protest came eight years after two female magicians protested about the men-only rule in 1964 by chaining themselves to railings outside the Circle's offices.  

In 1977, magician Morine Vickers took the Magic Circle to an industrial tribunal in a bid to get them to change their policy. 

But she was informed in a 12-page ruling that the all-male policy would not be changed.

The magician, from Leicester, said at the time: 'I have seen in my crystal ball that in future magicians will not be able to find any ladies to saw in half. They will have to use men.

'The reason they  don't want women to join is they can't stand the competition.' 

Stacey Lee went to the Equal Opportunities Commission to try to get the Magic Circle to change its stance.

But the body said they could not force the group to change its policy.

When the rules were finally changed in 1991, she jubilantly told the Daily Mail: 'A whole new world has opened up for me. 

'The Magic Circle has an international profile plus a huge library full of resources only available to members.' 

Since the Magic Circle's call-out this week, neither Ms Lloyd nor anyone who may know her has come forward.  

Laura London, the first female chair of The Magic Circle, told the Guardian: ‘I'd like to think that maybe we could give her [Lloyd] some closure to this extraordinary thing that she did, let her know that it was remembered, it will go down in history.

'I think it's really important to tell her: thank you for everything and we're very sorry for what happened.

'I think just to even sit down with her and find out her side of the story would be wonderful for us.

'But more than that, we could invite her back into society, which would be the most incredible thing.

Despite huge advances in the industry, magic is still a male-dominated industry.

Just 5 per cent of The Magic Circle’s current 1,700 members are female.