Magic at War

Robert Harbin was o ne of the most influential magicians of the Twentieth Century. Not only was he a superb performer, he was an inventive genius, and one of the most prodigious inventors of magical effects. During World War Two, he was tasked with bringing entertainment to thousands of war-weary troops in the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East. Robert Harbin - a master magician (Source: whirligig-tv.co.uk) The Boy Magician from Sunny South Africa   Robert Harbin (Edward ‘Ned’ Richard Charles Williams) was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in early 1909.     He first got interested in magic after an ex-serviceman appeared at his school with a magic show, which Harbin later described as   “rather poor.”  But, with his interest sparked, young Ned started learning magic. After watching British magician Clive Maskelyne perform in Durban,   he travelled to England in 1928 – aged 19 –   “to try his luck in the ‘old country’”.    Starting his British magic apprenticeship working in

During World War Two, Sydney Piddington was a prisoner-of-war (POW) in Singapore, where he developed a two-person telepathy act with fellow prisoner, Russell Braddon.   In the final part of this four-part article, we learn how the war ended for Piddington and how – along with his wife Lesley - he drew on his POW experiences to become one of the most famous mentalism acts of the Twentieth Century. End of the war In early 1945, Sydney Piddington and Russell Braddon’s telepathy demonstrations ended when Braddon – and most other prisoners in Changi – were sent out by the Japanese in groups of a hundred to various parts of Singapore to construct defences to defend the island from an Allied invasion. Piddington, doing invaluable service on Changi Jail’s secret radio was kept – under the pretext of illness and “completely unfit for all duties” – back in the camp.   On 6 August 1945, Piddington and his two colleagues operating the secret radio, learned of the atomic bombing of the J