 Fred died in Nagasaki in 1940 at the age of 56.In August of the same year, Sydney's two sons, Michael and Vanya, were arrested as spies by Japanese authorities and forced to leave the country.Sydney was required to close the Nagasaki office of Holme Ringer & Co. in October 1940 and to flee to Shanghai, where he and his wife were later arrested and interned in a Japanese war camp.