Arthur Percival

Percival's surrender to the invading Imperial Japanese Army force, the largest surrender in British military history, undermined Britain's prestige as an imperial power in East Asia.^[2][3] His defenders, such as Sir John Smyth, have argued that under-funding of Malaya's defences and the inexperienced, under-equipped nature of the Empire army in Malaya, not Percival's leadership, were ultimately to blame.^[4]

Early days

Childhood and employment

Arthur Ernest Percival was born on 26 December 1887 in Aspenden Lodge, Aspenden near Buntingford in Hertfordshire, England, 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.^[5] By 1891 the family was living in nearby Thundridge at "Sprangewell" on Poles Lane, his father being listed as "Land Agent" in the 1891 census, although it is unclear if this is still for Hamel's Park, or for E.S. Hanbury's Poles estate (now "Hanbury Manor"), which is adjacent to Sprangewell.^[6]

Percival was initially schooled locally in

For conspicuous gallantry in action. During the advance he showed fine leadership and determination under heavy shell and machine-gun fire. He worked unceasingly, with absolute disregard of danger, in completing every detail in the consolidation of the captured position.[5]^[12]

Percival took a regular commission as a captain with the Essex Regiment in October 1916,^[13] whilst recovering from his injuries in hospital. He was appointed a temporary major in his original regiment.^[14] In 1917, he became a battalion commander with the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel.^{[15][16][17][18][19]} During Germany's Spring Offensive, Percival led a counter-attack that saved a unit of French artillery from capture, winning a Croix de Guerre.^[20] For a short period in May 1918, he acted as commander of the 54th Brigade. He was given brevet promotion to major,^[21] and awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), with his citation stating the following:

For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during recent operations. He handled his battalion cleverly, showing power of command and knowledge of tactics. He set a fine example during several critical periods.^[5][22]

He ended the war, which came to an end on 11 November 1918 due to the Armistice with Germany, as a respected soldier, described as "very efficient" and was recommended for the Staff College.^[23]

Between the World Wars

Russia

Percival's studies were delayed in 1919 when he decided to volunteer for service with the

He commanded the Gorodok column on 9–10 August 1919, with great gallantry and skill, and owing to the success of this column the forces on the right bank of the Dvina were able to capture all its objectives. During the enemy counter-attack from Selmenga on Gorodok he handled his men excellently. The enemy were repulsed with great loss, leaving 400 prisoners in our hands.^[24]

Irish War of Independence

In 1920 Percival fought in Ireland against the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the Irish War of Independence, first as a company commander and later as the intelligence officer of the 1st Battalion of the Essex Regiment, in Bandon and Kinsale, County Cork.^[25]

Percival was an energetic

On 4 February 1921, during a military raid of an area stretching between Bandon and Kilbrittain, Percival shot and killed Lieutenant Patrick Crowley Jr. When Crowley, who was being treated for appendicitis, tried to flee from a house in Maryboro, Percival chased him on foot and shot him in the back.^[32]

IRA commandant Tom Barry later stated that Percival was "easily the most vicious anti-Irish of all serving British officers".^[33]

David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill met Percival in 1921, when he was called as an expert witness during an inquiry into the Anglo-Irish War.^[34]

Percival would later deliver a series of lectures on his experiences in Ireland in which he stressed the importance of surprise and offensive action, intelligence-gathering, maintaining security and co-operation between the security forces.^[35]

Historian J. B. E. Hittle wrote that of all the British officers in Ireland "Percival stood out for his violent, sadistic behaviour towards IRA prisoners, suspects and innocent civilians ... He also participated in reprisals, burning farms and businesses in response to IRA attacks.^[36] However, Clifford Kinvig, Percival's biographer considers him to have been unfairly vilified by Republican propaganda due to his being "tireless in his attempt to destroy the spirit of the people and the organisation of the IRA".^[37]

Staff officer

Percival attended the

In 1930, Percival spent a year studying at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. From 1931 to 1932, Percival was a General Staff Officer Grade 2, an instructor at the Staff College. The college's commandant was by now Major-General Sir John Dill, who became Percival's mentor over the next decade, 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 judgment 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".^[42] With Dill's support, Percival was appointed to command the 2nd Battalion, the Cheshire Regiment from 1932^[43] to 1936, initially in Malta. In 1935, he attended the Imperial Defence College in London.^[5]

Percival was made a full

Percival was appointed brigadier, General Staff, of the

In 1936, Major-General William Dobbie, then General Officer Commanding (Malaya), had made an inquiry into whether more forces were required on mainland Malaya to prevent the Japanese from establishing forward bases to attack Singapore. Percival, then his Chief Staff Officer, had been tasked to draw up a tactical assessment of how the Japanese were most likely to attack. In late 1937, his analysis had duly confirmed that north

In April 1941 Percival was promoted to acting Lieutenant-General,^[57] and was appointed General Officer Commanding (GOC) Malaya.^[51] This was a significant promotion for him as he had never commanded an army corps although he had previous experience there.^[51] He left Britain in a

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."^[54]

For much of the interwar period, Britain's defensive plan for Malaya had centred on the dispatch of a

On arrival, Percival set about training his inexperienced army; his Indian troops were particularly raw, with most of their experienced officers having been withdrawn to support the formation of new units as the Indian army expanded.[59] 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.^[60] A training manual approved by Percival, Tactical Notes on Malaya, was distributed to all units.^[61]

In July 1941 when the Japanese occupied southern Indochina, Britain, the

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.[63]

The Japanese advanced rapidly, and on 27 January 1942 Percival ordered a general retreat across the

Churchill viewed the fall of Singapore to be "the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history." However, the British defence was that the Middle East and the Soviet Union had all received higher priorities in the allocation of men and material, so the desired air force 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 tank.^[67] In The War in Malaya Percival himself cites this as the major factor for the defeat stating that the 'war material which might have saved Singapore was sent to Russia and the Middle East'. However he also concedes that Britain was engaged in 'a life and death struggle in the West' and that 'this decision, however painful and regrettable, was inevitable and right'.^[68]

In 1918, Percival had been described as "a slim, soft spoken man... with a proven reputation for bravery and organisational powers"^[69] but by 1945 this description had been turned on its head with even Percival's defenders describing him as "something of a damp squib".^[70] The fall of Singapore switched Percival's reputation to that of an ineffective "staff wallah", lacking ruthlessness and aggression. Over six feet in height and lanky, with a clipped moustache and two protruding teeth, and unphotogenic, Percival was an easy target for a caricaturist, being described as "tall, bucktoothed and lightly built".^[71] 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".^[72]

Air Chief Marshal Sir

Peter Wykeham suggested that the government in London was more to blame than any of the British commanders in the Far East. Despite repeated requests, the British government did not provide the necessary reinforcements and they denied Brooke-Popham – and therefore Percival – permission to enter neutral Thailand before it was too late to put in place forward defences.^[74]

Moreover, Percival had difficulties with his subordinates

In the post-war Percival Report (written in 1946, published in 1948) the "imminent collapse" of the water supply, estimated by David J. Murnane, the Municipal Water Engineer, on 14 February to occur within 24–48 hours, was highlighted as a direct cause for surrender.^[83] According to oral history records, quoted by Louis Allen (author of Singapore 1941–42), Murnane asked for and was promised by General Percival "ten lorries and a hundred Royal Engineers" so he could fix the water supply leaks caused by Japanese bombing and shelling. He never got what he needed: Louis Allen says Murnane got 'one lorry and ten frightened Sikhs'. When confronted again, all that Percival delivered (on 14 February) was one lorry and ten Royal Engineers but it was too late.^[84]

Captivity

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 and cook-sergeant. He discussed feelings with few, spent hours walking around the extensive compound, ruminating on the reverse and what might have been".^[85] In the belief that it would improve discipline, he reconstituted a Malaya Command, complete with staff appointments, and helped occupy his fellow prisoners with lectures on the Battle of France.^[86]

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

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 aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945.^[88][89] Afterwards, MacArthur gave Percival a pen he had used to sign the treaty.^[90]

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. Yamashita was momentarily surprised to see his former captive at the ceremony; on this occasion Percival refused to shake Yamashita's hand, angered by the mistreatment of POWs in Singapore. 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.^[91]

Later life

Percival returned to the United Kingdom in September 1945 to write his despatch at the

• Military Cross (MC) (1916)^[104]
• Croix de Guerre (1918)
• Distinguished Service Order (DSO) (1918)^[105]
• Distinguished Service Order (DSO*) (1920)^[106]
• (OBE (Mil)) (1921)^[107]
• Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB (Mil)) (1941)^[108]
• Deputy Lieutenant (DL) (1951)^[109]
• Officer of the Order of Saint John (OStJ) (1964)

See also

• Operation Krohcol
• Sir Shenton Thomas

References

Bibliography

• Barry, Tom, Guerilla Days in Ireland, Dublin, 1949
• Bose, Romen, "Secrets of the Battlebox: The role and history of Britain's Command HQ during the Malayan Campaign", Marshall Cavendish, Singapore, 2005
  ISBN 978-9814328548
• Coogan, Tim Pat. "Michael Collins".
  ISBN 0-09-968580-9
• Cox, Jeffrey (2014). Rising Sun, Falling Skies: The disastrous Java Sea Campaign of World War II. Osprey.
  ISBN 978-1780967264
  .
• Dixon, Norman F, On the Psychology of Military Incompetence, London, 1976
  ISBN 978-0712658898
• Hack, Karl and Blackburn, Kevin, Did Singapore Have to Fall?: Churchill and the Impregnable Fortress, Routledge Curzon, 2003,
  ISBN 0-415-30803-8
• ISBN 0-349-11317-3
• Kinvig, Clifford, General Percival and the Fall of Singapore, in 60 Years On: the Fall of Singapore Revisited, Eastern University Press, Singapore, 2003
  ISBN 978-9812102027
• ISBN 0-241-10583-8
• London Gazette
• MacArthur, Brian, Surviving the Sword: Prisoners of the Japanese 1942–45, Abacus,
  ISBN 0-349-11937-6
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 43, available at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography website
• Mead, Richard (2007). Churchill's Lions: A Biographical Guide to the Key British Generals of World War II. Stroud: Spellmount.
  ISBN 978-1-86227-431-0
  .
• ISBN 978-0151304042
• Percival, Arthur Ernest The War in Malaya, London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1949. Extracts from the report used as the basis of this book are at [1] accessed 2 February 2006 and the references here are to this report
• Ryan, Meda. Tom Barry: IRA Freedom Fighter, Cork, 2003
  ISBN 978-1856354806
• Smith, Colin, Singapore Burning: Heroism and Surrender in World War II, Penguin Books,
  ISBN 0-14-101036-3
• Smyth, John George, Percival and the Tragedy of Singapore, MacDonald and Company, 1971. ASIN B0006CDC1Q
• ISBN 978-0198217152
• Thompson, Peter (2005). The battle for Singapore : the true story of Britain's greatest military disaster. Portrait.
  OCLC 61701639
  .
• Warren, Alan, Singapore 1942: Britain's Greatest Defeat, Hambledon Continuum, 2001,
  ISBN 1-85285-328-X

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arthur Ernest Percival.

• British Army Officers 1939–1945
• Generals of World War II

Military offices
Preceded by Arthur Floyer-Acland	GOC 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division February–April 1940	Succeeded by Robert Pollok
Preceded by Laurence Carr	Assistant Chief of the Imperial General Staff April–July 1940	Succeeded by Desmond Anderson
Preceded by Edmund Osborne	GOC 44th (Home Counties) Infantry Division 1940–1941	Succeeded by Noel Mason-MacFarlane
Preceded by Sir Lionel Bond	GOC Malaya Command 1941–1942	Fell to Japan
Honorary titles
Preceded by Geoffrey Harding	Colonel of the Cheshire Regiment 1950–1955	Succeeded by Thomas Brodie