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Arthur Ernest Percival

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                Arthur Ernest Percival
   December 26, 1887 – January 31, 1966
   GOC Malaya in December 1941.
    Place of birth  Aspenden, Hertfordshire
      Allegiance    British Army
   Years of service 1914-1946
         Rank       Lieutenant-General
       Commands     General Officer Commanding Malaya
     Battles/wars   World War I
                    Russian Civil War
                    Anglo-Irish War
                    Battle of Malaya
                    Battle of Singapore
        Awards      CB, DSO and bar, OBE, MC

   Lieutenant-General Arthur Ernest Percival, CB, DSO and Bar, OBE, MC,
   OStJ, DL ( December 26, 1887 - January 31, 1966) was a British Army
   officer and a World War I hero. He built a successful military career
   between the wars but is most noted for his involvement in World War II,
   when he commanded the British and Commonwealth army during the Battle
   of Malaya and the subsequent Battle of Singapore.

   Percival's surrender to the smaller invading Japanese Army is the
   largest capitulation in British military history and fatally undermined
   Britain's prestige as an imperial power in the Far East. However, the
   years of under-funding of Malaya's defences combined with the
   inexperienced, under-equipped nature of the British and Commonwealth
   army makes it possible to hold a more sympathetic view of his command.

Early life

Childhood and Employment

   Arthur Ernest Percival was born on Boxing Day in Aspenden Lodge,
   Aspenden near Buntingford in Hertfordshire, the second son of Alfred
   Reginald and Edith Percival (née Miller). His father was the Land Agent
   of the Hamel's Park estate and his mother came from a Lancashire cotton
   family.

   Percival was initially schooled locally in Bengeo. Then in 1901 he was
   sent to Rugby with his more academically successful brother, where he
   was a boarder in School House. A moderate pupil, he studied Greek and
   Latin but was described by a teacher as "not a good classic".
   Percival's only qualification on leaving in 1906 was a higher school
   certificate. He was a more successful sportsman, playing cricket and
   tennis and running cross country. He also rose to colour sergeant in
   the school's Volunteer Rifle Corps. However, his military career began
   at a comparatively late age: although a member of Youngsbury Rifle
   Club, he was still working as a clerk for the iron-ore merchants,
   Naylor, Benzon & Company Limited in London, which he had joined in 1907
   when the Great War broke out. But for this conflict, it seems certain
   that he would have remained a civilian.

Enlistment and World War I

   Percival enlisted on the first day of the war as a private in the
   Officer Training Corps of the Inns of court, aged 26, and was promoted
   after five weeks' basic training to acting second lieutenant. Nearly
   one third of his fellow recruits would be dead by the end of the war.
   Near Thiepval, 7 August.
   Enlarge
   Near Thiepval, 7 August.

   The following year Percival was dispatched to France with the newly
   formed 7th (Service) Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment, which
   became part of the 54th Brigade, 18th (Eastern) Division in February
   1915. The first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916 left
   Percival unscathed, but he was badly hurt by shrapnel wounds in four
   places in September as he led his company in an assault on the Schwaben
   Redoubt beyond the ruins of Thiepval village and was awarded the
   Military Cross.

   Percival took a regular commission as a captain with the Essex Regiment
   in October 1916, whilst recovering from his injuries in hospital. In
   1917, he became battalion commander with the temporary rank of
   lieutenant-colonel. During Germany's Spring Offensive, Percival led a
   counter-attack that saved a unit of French artillery from capture,
   winning a Croix de Guerre. For a short period in May 1918, he acted as
   commander of the 54th Brigade. He was awarded the Distinguished Service
   Order, with his citation noting his "power of command and knowledge of
   tactics".He ended the war as a respected soldier, described as "very
   efficient" and was recommended for the Staff College.

Between the Wars

   Major Percival in Ireland
   Enlarge
   Major Percival in Ireland

Russia

   Percival's studies were delayed in 1919 when he decided to volunteer
   for service with the Archangel Command of the British Military Mission
   during the North Russia Campaign of the Russian Civil War. Appointed
   brevet major and acting as second-in-command of the 46th Royal
   Fusiliers, he earned a bar to his DSO in August, when his attack in the
   Gorodok operation along the Dvina netted 400 Bolshevik prisoners.

Ireland

   More controversially, in 1920 Percival served as a company commander
   and later the intelligence officer of the 1st Battalion, the Essex
   Regiment in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland fighting the IRA during the
   Anglo-Irish War.

   Percival was a successful counter-guerrila but he soon developed a
   reputation for brutality amongst the Irish people: following the murder
   of an RIC sergeant in church in July 1920, he captured Tom Hales,
   commander of the West Cork Brigade, and Patrick Harte, the brigade's
   quartermaster, and won an OBE. But there were allegations that these
   and other prisoners were maltreated whilst in custody and he was unable
   to jail Tom Barry in spite of once having the opportunity to
   interrogate him.

   The IRA placed a bounty of £1,000 on Percival's head, seeing him as
   responsible for the "Essex Battalion Torture Squad", and a first
   attempted assassination was only foiled when Percival departed from his
   dinnertime routine. A second hit squad was dispatched to London in
   March 1921 but was forced to flee Liverpool Street Station when the
   police learned of their plans. Back in Ireland, Percival led a raid
   that killed one of the would-be hitmen.

   Whilst in Ireland, Bernard Montgomery, who was serving in the same
   brigade, made Percival's acquaintance and they later exchanged letters
   on their experiences in this war. David Lloyd-George and Winston
   Churchill also met Percival in 1921 when he was called as an expert
   witness during an inquiry into the Anglo-Irish War.

Staff officer

   Percival attended the Staff College, Camberley from 1923 to 1924, then
   commanded by General Edmund Ironside, where he was taught by J.F.C.
   Fuller, who was one of the few sympathetic reviewers of his book, The
   War in Malaya, twenty five years later. He impressed his instructors,
   who picked him out as one of eight students for accelerated promotion,
   and his fellow students who admired his cricketing skills. Following an
   appointment as major with the Cheshire Regiment, he spent four years
   with the Nigeria Regiment of the Royal West African Frontier Force in
   West Africa as a staff officer.
   The Royal Naval College, where Percival studied in 1930
   Enlarge
   The Royal Naval College, where Percival studied in 1930

   In 1930, Percival spent a year studying at the Royal Naval College,
   Greenwich. From 1931 to 1932, Percival was General Staff Officer Grade
   2, an instructor at the Staff College. The College's commandant General
   Sir John Dill, became Percival's mentor over the next 10 years, helping
   to ensure his protégé's advancement. Dill regarded Percival as a
   promising officer and wrote that "he has an outstanding ability, wide
   military knowledge, good judgement and is a very quick and accurate
   worker" but added "he has not altogether an impressive presence and one
   may therefore fail, at first meeting him, to appreciate his sterling
   worth". With Dill's support, Percival was appointed to command the 2nd
   Battalion, the Cheshire Regiment from 1932 to 1936, initially in Malta.
   In 1935, he attended the Imperial Defence College.

   Percival was made a full colonel and from 1936 to 1938 he was General
   Staff Officer Grade 1 in Malaya, the Chief of Staff to General Dobbie,
   the General Officer Commanding in Malaya. During this time, he
   recognised that Singapore was no longer an isolated fortress. He
   considered the possibility of the Japanese landing in Thailand to
   "burgle Malaya by the backdoor and conducted an appraisal of the
   possibility of an attack being launched on Singapore from the North,
   which was supplied to the War Office, and which Percival subsequently
   felt was similar to the plan followed by the Japanese in 1941. He also
   supported Dobbie's unexecuted plan for the construction of fixed
   defences in Southern Johore. In March 1938, he returned to Britain and
   was promoted to brigadier on the General Staff, Aldershot Command.

Family

   On 27 July 1927 Percival married Margaret Elizabeth "Betty" MacGregor
   (who died in 1956) in the Holy Trinity Church, West Brompton. She was
   the daughter of Thomas MacGregor Greer of Tallylagan Manor, a
   protestant linen merchant from County Tyrone in Ulster. They had met
   during his tour of duty in Ireland and it had taken Percival several
   years to propose. They had two children. A daughter, Dorinda Margery,
   was born in Greenwich and became Lady Dunleath. Alfred James MacGregor,
   their son, was born in Singapore and also served in the British Army.
   The family were well-to-do and Percival's estate on his death was
   valued at £102,515, a considerable sum in 1966.

The Second World War

   Lieutenant-General Percival leaving a plane on his arrival in Singapore
   in 1941 as the new GOC Malaya
   Enlarge
   Lieutenant-General Percival leaving a plane on his arrival in Singapore
   in 1941 as the new GOC Malaya

   Percival was appointed Brigadier, General Staff, of the I Corps,
   British Expeditionary Force, commanded by General Dill, from 1939 to
   1940. He was then promoted to major general and in February 1940
   briefly became General Officer Commanding 43rd (Wessex) Division. He
   was made Assistant Chief of the Imperial General Staff at the War
   Office in 1940 but asked for a transfer to an active command after the
   Dunkirk evacuation. Given command of the 44th (Home Counties) Infantry
   Division, he spent 9 months organising the protection of 62 miles of
   the English coast from invasion. He was created Companion of the Order
   of the Bath (CB) in 1941.

General Officer Commanding (Malaya)

   In May 1941 Percival was given a temporary promotion to acting
   lieutenant-general and was appointed General Officer Commanding (GOC)
   Malaya. This was a significant promotion for him as he had never
   commanded an army Corps. He left Britain in a Sunderland flying boat
   and embarked on an arduous two week, multi-stage flight via Gibraltar,
   Malta, Alexandria, where he was delayed by the Anglo-Iraqi War, Basra,
   Karachi and Rangoon, where he was met by an RAF transport.

   Percival had mixed feelings about his appointment, noting that "In
   going to Malaya I realised that there was the double danger either of
   being left in an inactive command for some years if war did not break
   out in the East or, if it did, of finding myself involved in a pretty
   sticky business with the inadequate forces which are usually to be
   found in the distant parts of our Empire in the early stages of a war."

   For much of the inter-War period, Britain's defensive plan for Malaya
   had centred on the dispatch of a naval fleet to the newly built
   Singapore Naval Base. Accordingly, the army's role was to defend
   Singapore and Southern Johore. Whilst this plan had seemed adequate
   when the nearest Japanese base had been 1,700 miles away, the outbreak
   of war in Europe combined with the partial Japanese occupation of the
   Northern part of French Indochina and the signing of the Tripartite
   Pact in September 1940 had underlined the impossibility of a sea based
   defence. Instead it was proposed to use the RAF to defend Malaya, at
   least until reinforcements could be dispatched from Britain. This led
   to the building of airfields in Northern Malaya and along its East
   coast and the dispersal of the available army units around the
   peninsula to protect them.

   On arrival Percival set about training his inexperienced army, with his
   Indian troops being particularly raw, with most of their experienced
   officers having been withdrawn to support the formation of new units as
   the Indian army expanded. Relying upon commercial aircraft or the
   Volunteer air force to overcome the shortage of RAF planes, he toured
   the peninsula and encouraged the building of defensive works around
   Jitra. A training manual, Tactical Notes on Malaya, approved by
   Percival was distributed to all units.

   In July 1941 the Japanese occupied Southern Indochina and sanctions
   were invoked by Britain, the United States and the Netherlands,
   freezing financial assets and cutting Japan off from its supplies of
   oil, tin and rubber. Given their on-going involvement in China, this
   put Japan in an unsustainable position. Both the Japanese navy and army
   were mobilised but for the moment an uneasy state of cold war
   persisted. British and Commonwealth reinforcements continued to trickle
   into Malaya. On 2 December, the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the
   battle-cruiser HMS Repulse, escorted by four destroyers arrived in
   Singapore, the first time a battle fleet had been based there. The
   following day Rear-Admiral Spooner hosted a dinner attended by the
   newly arrived Commander-in-Chief Eastern Fleet Admiral Tom Phillips and
   Percival.

The Japanese attack and the British surrender

   Malaya Command and the Japanese invasion
   Enlarge
   Malaya Command and the Japanese invasion

   On December 8, 1941 the Japanese 25th Army under the command of
   Lieutenant-General Tomoyuki Yamashita landed on the Malay Peninsula
   (one hour before the attack on Pearl Harbour, the difference in date
   being because of the international date line). That night the first
   Japanese invasion force arrived at Kota Bharu on Malaya's East coast.
   This was just a diversionary force and the main landings took place the
   next day at Singora and Pattani on the south-eastern coast of Thailand,
   with troops rapidly deploying over the border into Northern Malaya.

   On 10 December, Percival issued a stirring, if ultimately ineffective,
   Special Order of the Day:
     * In this hour of trial the General Officer Commanding calls upon all
       ranks Malaya Command for a determined and sustained effort to
       safeguard Malaya and the adjoining British territories. The eyes of
       the Empire are upon us. Our whole position in the Far East is at
       stake. The struggle may be long and grim but let us all resolve to
       stand fast come what may and to prove ourselves worthy of the great
       trust which has been placed in us.

   Royal Engineers prepare to blow up a bridge during the retreat
   Enlarge
   Royal Engineers prepare to blow up a bridge during the retreat

   The Japanese advanced rapidly and on 27 January 1942 Percival ordered a
   general retreat across the Johore Strait to the island of Singapore and
   organised a defence along the length of the island's 70 mile coast
   line. But the Japanese did not dawdle and on 8 February, Japanese
   troops landed on the northwest corner of Singapore island. After a week
   of fighting on the island, Percival held his final command conference
   at 9 am on 15 February in the Battle Box of Fort Canning. Having been
   told that ammunition and water would both run out by the following day,
   it was agreed to surrender.

   The Japanese insisted that Percival himself, march under a white flag
   to the Old Ford Motor Factory in Bukit Timah to negotiate the
   surrender. A Japanese officer present noted that he looked "pale, thin
   and tired". After a brief disagreement, when Percival insisted that the
   British keep 1,000 men under arms in Singapore to preserve order, which
   Yamashita finally conceded, it was agreed at 6.10 pm that the British
   and Commonwealth troops would lay down their arms and cease resistance
   at 8.30 pm. This was in spite of instructions from Winston Churchill
   for prolonged resistance. The Pacific War was just ten weeks old.

   A common view holds that 138,708 Allied personnel surrendered or were
   killed by fewer than 30,000 Japanese. However, the former figure
   includes nearly 50,000 troops captured or killed during the Battle of
   Malaya, and perhaps 15,000 base troops. Many of the other troops were
   tired and under-equipped following their retreat from the Malayan
   peninsula. Conversely, the latter number represents only the front-line
   troops available for the invasion of Singapore. British and
   Commonwealth battle casualties since 8 December amounted to 7,500
   killed and 11,000 wounded. Japanese losses totalled around 3,500 killed
   and 6,100 wounded.

Culpability for the fall of Singapore

   Lieutenant-General Percival led by a Japanese officer, marches under a
   flag of truce to negotiate the capitulation of Allied forces in
   Singapore, on 15 February 1942. It was the largest surrender of
   British-led forces in history
   Enlarge
   Lieutenant-General Percival led by a Japanese officer, marches under a
   flag of truce to negotiate the capitulation of Allied forces in
   Singapore, on 15 February 1942. It was the largest surrender of
   British-led forces in history
   Lt Gen Yamashita (seated, centre) thumps the table with his fist to
   emphasise his demand for unconditional surrender. Lt Gen Percival sits
   between his officers, his clenched hand to his mouth (Photo from
   Imperial War Museum)
   Enlarge
   Lt Gen Yamashita (seated, centre) thumps the table with his fist to
   emphasise his demand for unconditional surrender. Lt Gen Percival sits
   between his officers, his clenched hand to his mouth (Photo from
   Imperial War Museum)

   Churchill viewed the fall of Singapore to be "the worst disaster and
   largest capitulation in British history". However, Britain, the Middle
   East and the Soviet Union had all received higher priorities in the
   allocation of men and material, so the desired airforce strength of 300
   to 500 aircraft was never reached and whereas the Japanese invaded with
   over two hundred tanks the British Army in Malaya did not have a single
   one.

   In 1918, Percival had been described as "a slim, soft spoken man...
   with a proven reputation for bravery and organisational powers" but by
   1945 this description had been turned on its head with even Percival's
   defenders describing him as "something of a damp squib". The fall of
   Singapore switched Percival's reputation to that of an ineffective
   "staff wallah", lacking ruthlessness and aggression, even though few
   doubted that he was a brave and determined officer. Over six feet in
   height and lanky, with a clipped moustache and two protruding teeth,
   Percival was an easy target for a caricaturist and decidedly
   unphotogenic, being described as "tall, bucktoothed and lightly built".
   . There was no doubt his presentation lacked impact as "his manner was
   low key and he was a poor public speaker with the cusp of a lisp" but
   it is equally clear that looks alone do not lose battles.

   Percival's colleagues must share some of the responsibility. Air Chief
   Marshal Sir Robert Brooke-Popham, the Commander-in-Chief of the British
   Far East Command refused Percival permission to launch Operation
   Matador in advance of the Japanese landings in Thailand, not wishing to
   run any risk of provoking the coming war. Brooke-Popham also had a
   reputation for being "past it", falling asleep in meetings and not
   arguing forcefully for the air reinforcements required to defend
   Malaya. Whilst Admiral Tom Phillips was undoubtedly brave, his bold
   leadership of Force Z led to his demise and the destruction of the
   British fleet on 10 December 1941, early in the campaign.

   Moreover, Percival had difficulties with his subordinates Sir Lewis
   "Piggy" Heath, commanding Indian III Corps, and the independent-minded
   Gordon Bennett, commanding the Australian 8th Division. The former
   officer had been senior to Percival prior to his appointment as GOC
   (Malaya) and found it difficult to serve under him. Bennett was full of
   confidence in his Australian troops, but many saw this as bravado with
   little basis in reality and he faced a mixed reaction in Australia when
   he escaped from Singapore immediately after its surrender.

   That said, Percival was ultimately responsible for the men who served
   under him and with other officers, notably Major-General Murray-Lyon
   commander of the Indian 11th Infantry Division, he had shown a
   willingness to replace them when he felt their performance was not up
   to scratch. Perhaps his greatest mistake was to resist the building of
   fixed defences in either Johore or the north shore of Singapore,
   dismissing them in the face of repeated requests to start construction
   from his Chief Engineer, Brigadier Ivan Simson, with the comment
   "Defences are bad for morale - for both troops and civilians". In doing
   so, Percival threw away the potential advantages he could have derived
   from the 6,000 engineers under his command and perhaps missed his best
   chance to blunt the danger posed by the Japanese tanks. Percival also
   insisted on defending the North-Eastern shore of Singapore most heavily
   in spite of the wider Straits and against the advice of his new
   Commander-in-Chief General Wavell, perhaps fixed on his
   responsibilities for defending the Singapore Naval Base.

Captivity

   The signing of the Japanese surrender MacArthur (sitting), behind him
   are Generals Percival and Wainwright
   Enlarge
   The signing of the Japanese surrender MacArthur (sitting), behind him
   are Generals Percival and Wainwright

   Percival himself was briefly held prisoner in Changi Prison, where "the
   defeated GOC could be seen sitting head in hands, outside the married
   quarters he now shared with seven brigadiers, a colonel, his ADC,
   cook-sergeant and batman. He discussed feelings with few, spent hours
   walking around the extensive compound, ruminating on the reverse and
   what might have been". In the belief that it would improve discipline,
   he reconsituted a Malaya Command, complete with staff appointments, and
   helped occupy his fellow prisoners with lectures on the Battle of
   France.

   Along with the other senior British captives above the rank of colonel,
   Percival was removed from Singapore in August 1942. First he was
   imprisoned in Formosa and then sent on to Manchuria, where he was held
   with several dozen other VIP captives including the American, General
   Jonathan Wainwright in a prisoner-of-war camp near Hsian, about 100
   miles to the north east of Mukden.

   As the war drew to an end, an OSS team removed the prisoners from
   Hsian. Percival was then taken, along with Wainwright, to stand
   immediately behind General Douglas MacArthur as he confirmed the terms
   of the Japanese surrender onboard the USS Missouri (BB-63) in Tokyo Bay
   on 2 September. Afterwards, MacArthur gave Percival one of the pens he
   had used to sign the treaty.

   Percival and Wainwright then returned together to the Philippines to
   witness the surrender of the Japanese army there, which in a twist of
   fate was commanded by General Yamashita. The Tiger of Malaya was
   momentarily surprised to see his former captive at the ceremony. The
   flag carried by Percival's party on the way to Bukit Timah was also a
   witness to this reversal of fortunes, being flown when the Japanese
   formally surrendered Singapore back to Lord Louis Mountbatten.

Later life

   Percival returned to Britain in September 1945 to write his dispatch at
   the War Office but this was revised by the Government and only
   published in 1948. He retired from the army in 1946 with the honorary
   rank of lieutenant-general but only the pension of a major-general.
   Thereafter, he held appointments connected with the county of
   Hertfordshire, where he lived at Bullards in Widford: he was Honorary
   Colonel of the 479th (Hertfordshire Yeomanry) H.A.A. Regiment T.A. from
   1949-1954 and acted as one of the Deputy Lieutenants of Hertfordshire
   in 1951. He continued his relationship with the Cheshire Regiment being
   appointed Colonel of the Cheshire Regiment between 1950-1955; an
   association continued by his son, Brigadier James Percival who became
   Colonel of the Regiment between 1992 and 1999.

   Whilst General Wainwright had become a public hero on his return to the
   United States, Percival found himself disparaged for his leadership in
   Malaya, even by Lieutenant-General Heath, his erstwhile subordinate.
   "The War in Malaya", Percival's memoir, published in 1949, did little
   to quell this criticism, being a restrained rather than self-serving
   account of the campaign. Unusually for a British lieutenant-general,
   Percival was not awarded a knighthood.

   Percival was respected for the time he had spent as a Japanese
   prisoner-of-war. Serving as life president of the Far East Prisoners of
   War Association (FEPOW), he pushed for compensation for his fellow
   captives, eventually helping to obtain a token £5 million of frozen
   Japanese assets for this cause. This was distributed by the FEPOW
   Welfare Trust, which Percival served as Chairman. He led protests
   against the film the Bridge on the River Kwai, when it was released in
   1957, obtaining the addition of on on-screen statement that the movie
   was a work of fiction. He also worked as President of the Hertfordshire
   British Red Cross and was made an Officer of the Order of St. John in
   1964.

   Percival died at the age of 78 on 31 January 1966, in King Edward VII's
   Hospital for Officers, Beaument Street in Westminster and was buried in
   Hertfordshire. Leonard Wilson, formerly the Bishop of Singapore gave
   the address at his memorial service, which was held in St
   Martin-in-the-Fields.

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