Magic at War

In Parts 1 and 2 of this article about Sydney and Lesley Piddington, one of the most famous mentalism acts of the Twentieth Century, we learned how Sydney’s early interest in magic was disrupted by World War Two. And how he ended up in the Australian army and became a prisoner-of-war (POW) in Changi, Singapore. Part 3 explores ho w Piddington developed a two-person telepathy act in Changi, which became the basis for The Piddingtons’ post-war radio broadcasts.   Thai-Burma Railway and the Changi Aerodrome At the end of 1942, Sydney Piddington was reunited with fellow Australian Russell Braddon, when the prisoners from Pudu Jail in Malaysia were moved to Changi in Singapore. By this time, with Changi massively overcrowded, the Japanese were moving POWs to ‘lavish new camps’ in Thailand where there was better food and living conditions. They wanted thousands of men to go there. Piddington and Braddon, fed up with life in Changi, put their names down for H Force, one of the lat...

In Part 1 of this article about Sydney and Lesley Piddington, one of the most famous mentalism acts of the Twentieth Century, we learned how Sydney’s early interest in magic was disrupted by World War Two. And how he ended up in the Australian army, fighting to defend Malaya and Singapore. In Part 2, we discover how Piddington rekindled his interest in magic as a prisoner-of-war (POW) and the role he played in operating a secret radio. Prisoner-of-war   After his capture, Sydney Piddington and the other captured Allied troops were force marched to Changi in the island ’s  east.  Changi was a collection of up to seven POW and internee camps, occupying an area of approximately 25 square kilometres. Its name came from the peninsula on which it stood. Prior to the war the Changi Peninsula had been the British Army’s principal base area in Singapore. As a result, the site boasted an extensive and well-constructed military infrastructure, including three major barracks – ...