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Lieut.-Gen. Arthur Ernest Percival
Lieut.-Gen. Arthur Ernest Percival (26 Dec. 1887 - 31 Jan.1966) was a senior British Army officer. He saw service in WWI and built a successful military career during the interwar ...view moreLieut.-Gen. Arthur Ernest Percival (26 Dec. 1887 - 31 Jan.1966) was a senior British Army officer. He saw service in WWI and built a successful military career during the interwar period but is most noted for his defeat in WWII, when he commanded British Commonwealth forces during the Japanese Malayan Campaign and the subsequent Battle of Singapore.
Born in Aspenden in Hertfordshire, England, he attended boarding school in Rugby in 1901, studying Greek and Latin, and graduated with a Higher School Certificate.
He volunteered for the British Army in Aug. 1914 and by September had become a commissioned officer with the 7th Bedfordshire battalion. He saw action on the Western Front and distinguished himself by earning numerous military honours, including the DSO and the Croix de Guerre, and achieving the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He remained in the army after the war, attending both the Army and Naval Staff Colleges and serving in Russia, Ireland, Nigeria and Malta.
In 1936, he was posted to Malaya as the general staff officer (first grade). In Dec. 1937, he returned to the UK to join the Aldershot Command. In May 1941, he was again posted to Malaya, this time as the temporary lieutenant-general and the General Officer Commanding (Malaya). The Japanese advance in Malaya caught Allied troops unprepared, resulting in their retreat to Singapore in Jan. 1942. A fierce battle to hold Singapore ensued, but on 15 Feb. Percival decided to surrender Singapore.
He spent the next three years as a PoW during the Japanese Occupation at Changi Camp, Formosa (Taiwan), and Manchuria. In Sept. 1945, he was invited by U.S. General Douglas MacArthur to witness the formal surrender of Japan. He returned to the UK that same month and retired from the army in 1946 with the honorary rank of lieutenant-general, but the pension of his substantive rank of major-general.
He died in King Edward VII’s Hospital for Officers, Westminster, in 1966 aged 78.view less