Magic at War

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 bo...

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 – ...

Australian’s Sydney and Lesley Piddington were one of the most famous mentalism acts of all time. They claimed to communicate telepathically and perform other feats of mental ability. Popular performers in the UK, Australia and around the world, their act was a radio and television sensation in the late 1940s and early 1950s.   “You are the judge!” was their moniker, calling on their audiences to decide for themselves if telepathy was real or not.   Incredibly, the origins of their act were developed during World War Two, in a prisoner-of-war camp in Singapore.   Learning magic   Born in Sydney near the end of World War One, Sydney George Piddington (14 May 1918 – 29 January 1991) trained and worked as an audit clerk after finishing school in 1934.   Alongside his day job ‘Sid’ or ‘Syd’ Piddington became interested in magic.  As a  teenager, he joined a local magic society called the Independent Magical Performers of Sydney (known as the...