St Trinian's at war

Ronald Searle's naughty schoolgirls grew out of his imprisonment in Changi Camp with Neil Mackwood's uncle

My uncle, John Mackwood, was a Japanese POW both in the Changi Camp in Singapore and on the notorious death railway in modern-day Thailand. He was in the camp with the great artist and cartoonist Ronald Searle (1920-2011) and my uncle John, having been at theatre school, took an active interest in the plays that the POWs put on in Changi. I have copies of several programme covers of those plays with titles such as In Clink Tonight, Khaki on Parade and Dover Road. In one play, R C Sheriff's Badger's Green, in March 1942, Lieutenant J L Mackwood played Mr Twigg and Ronald Searle was billed as Scenic Artist. My parents – my father, Charles, was John's elder brother – encountered a man on a ship coming home from…

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The Oldie (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2025

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