Syd Smith was a Colditz PoW and London copper

Arthur Smith is writing a book and a Radio 4 special based on his father’s extraordinary life.

Syd Smith survived the second battle of El Alamein in Egypt in 1942 but was captured, sent to a slave  labour camp and then  incarcerated in the notorious Colditz Castle. After the war, he became a police officer in South London.

His first-hand account formed the basis of Arthur’s stand-up show Syd, which is now being adapted for radio a book, provisionally titled My Dad Was In Colditz. However it is not slated to be published until summer 2023.

Smith used the same title for a 1993 Radio Five documentary, My Dad Was In Colditz, in which he accompanied his father to his former jail, which had by then been converted into a hotel.

News of the book and radio show were broken by the British Comedy Guide. The comic told them that although he would have a part in the book, ‘I want it mainly to be his story. Obviously, I'll talk about when we went back to Colditz and what I've learned from him, maybe how he died. So I will be present but in the background I hope.’

He added that as well as his wartime exploits, Syd  had ‘a lot of good copper stories too’. including talking a suicidal girl down from Waterloo Bridge and meeting Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie.

Published: 7 Mar 2021