A local connection has helped to tell the story of the Jack Boardman who was the concert pianist in the infamous Changi Prison in World War II, as well as a touching impromptu performance with the 96-year-old.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It all came about when musician Hugh Scott Murray was performing in Hargraves in a duelling pianos show.
Hugh is also a contributor to conversations with Fiona Wyllie on ABC statewide radio with Roll or Rust where he interviews people who “have a musical past below Top 40 radio”.
“During one of the breaks I was introduced to Thelma [Beechey], who is Jack’s cousin,” Hugh said.
Jack was born in Nevertire in Western NSW and lived in Sydney when he enlisted during World War II before he was captured when Singapore fell.
“The Australian soldiers smuggled in a piano which had been at the British officers’ quarters,” Hugh said.
“There was an orchestra and the Australians got together a concert band and for the first three-and-a-half years they would put on a performance every night, not just for the prisoners but also for the Japanese guards and sometimes the officers.
'He took it away and arranged it so that the band could just play with Jack without having to rehearse it and so it could be a surprise.'
“And Jack was the piano player.”
That piano is currently in the Australian War Memorial museum.
Thelma added that Jack’s talent made a crucial difference.
“They sent a lot of men up to the Burma railway to work and he didn’t go because the Japanese officers used to sit in the front row of the concert parties,” she said.
“They really enjoyed them so they wouldn’t let the concert party go, so Jack says that it probably saved his life because he thinks he wouldn’t have survived on the railway.”
Hugh went to see Jack who lives at Legacy Care on the Central Coast, recorded an interview with him just before Anzac Day for conversations with Fiona Wyllie.
During which he got another idea; to surprise Jack with a brass band on video.
They were pieced together from members of the Central Coast Concert Band and the Tuggerah Lakes Show Band.
The band leader Robert Bedwell OAM, who is the president of the Australian Brass Band Association, did the arrangement for the performance of Jack’s favourite song ‘La Golondrina’.
“He took it away and arranged it so that the band could just play with Jack without having to rehearse it and so it could be a surprise,” Hugh said.
Thelma said the video of her cousin being joined by the band is a joy to watch.
“The look on his face is absolutely delightful,” she said.
The video of the performance and the clips of Hugh Scott Murray’s interview with Jack Boardman can be found on his website www.rollorrust.com.
The video can also be seen on Youtube at bit.ly/1gTN0Jr
