Lieutenant-General Arthur Ernest Percival, (26 December 1887 – 31 January 1966) was a British Army officer. He saw service in the First World War and built a successful military career during the interwar period, but is best known for his defeat in the Second World War, when Percival commanded British Commonwealth forces during the Malayan campaign, which culminated in a catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Singapore.
Percival's surrender to the invading Imperial Japanese Army, which was the largest of its kind in British military history, significantly undermined Britain's prestige and military position in East Asia. Some historians, such as Sir John Smyth, have argued that under-funding of British Malaya's defences and the inexperienced, under-equipped nature of the Commonwealth forces in Malaya, not Percival's leadership, were ultimately to blame for the defeat.
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. 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.
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 working as a clerk for the iron ore merchants Naylor, Benzon & Company Limited in London, which he had joined in 1914, when the First World War broke out.
Enlistment and First World War
Percival enlisted on the first day of the war as a private in the Officer Training Corps of the Inns of Court, at the age of 26, and was promoted after five weeks' basic training to temporary second lieutenant. Nearly one third of his fellow recruits would be dead by the end of the war. By November Percival had been promoted to captain. The following year he was dispatched to France with the newly formed 7th (Service) Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment (later the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment), which became part of the 54th Brigade, 18th (Eastern) Division, in February 1915. The first day of the Battle of the Somme (1 July 1916) left Percival unscathed, but in September he was badly wounded in four places by shrapnel, as he led his company in an assault on the Schwaben Redoubt, beyond the ruins of Thiepval village, and was awarded the Military Cross (MC), the citation for which reads:
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.
Percival took a regular commission as a captain with the Essex Regiment in October 1916, whilst recovering from his injuries in hospital. He was appointed a temporary major in his original regiment. In 1917, he became a 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 given brevet promotion to major, 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.
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.
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 intervention of the Russian Civil War. Acting as second-in-command of the 45th Royal Fusiliers, he earned a bar to his DSO in August, when his attack in the Gorodok operation along the Northern Dvina resulted in the British capture of 400 Red Army troops. The citation reads:
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.
In 1920, Percival was deployed to Ireland and fought 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 Essex Regiment. He was stationed in Bandon and Kinsale in County Cork. In December 1920 the Commander in Chief of British forces in Ireland (Nevil Macready) informed the British Cabinet that "official reprisals" had been authorized in areas under martial law. Percival proved to be an energetic counterinsurgency commander who was noted for his aptitude for intelligence-gathering and establishment of bicycle infantry formations which acted as flying columns. He was also accused by several IRA prisoners of using torture during interrogations. As a result, Percival became one of the most hated British commanders in Ireland at the time and survived three assassination attempts by the IRA. The IRA had promised a £1,000 reward to whoever captured or killed Percival.
Following the IRA killing of a Royal Irish Constabulary sergeant outside a Bandon church in July 1920, Percival captured Tom Hales, the commander of the IRA's 3rd Cork Brigade, and Patrick Harte, the brigade's quartermaster, for which he was given an OBE. Both Hales and Harte subsequently claimed they had been tortured while in custody, and according to IRA commander Tom Barry, Harte received a severe blow with a rifle butt to his temple causing a brain injury and died in a mental hospital in 1925 as a result. British intelligence officer and later British fascist Ormonde Winter subsequently alleged that Hales had informed on the IRA while in British custody and had invented his allegations to deflect attention away from his decision to provide the names of fellow IRA members in return for a lesser sentence.
On 4 February 1921, while participating a raid carried out by British forces between Bandon and Kilbrittain, Percival shot and killed IRA volunteer 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. Barry later wrote that Percival was "easily the most vicious anti-Irish of all serving British officers". David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill met Percival in 1921, when he was called as an expert witness during an inquiry into the Irish War of Independence.
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 different security forces. 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. Percival was said to regularly drive in the countryside in an open touring car so he could "have cockshots at farmers working in the fields". It is possible that Percival was influenced by the then British Army Captain Bernard Montgomery who wrote to Percival regarding tactics he used to combat the Irish rebels: "My own view is that to win a war of this sort, you must be ruthless. Oliver Cromwell, or the Germans, would have settled it in a very short time. Clifford Kinvig, Percival's biographer considers him to have been unfairly vilified by Irish republican propaganda due to being "tireless in his attempt to destroy the spirit of the people and the organisation of the IRA".