Arthur Ernest Percival

Lieutenant-General Arthur Ernest Percival (26 December 1887 - 31 January 1966) was a British Army officer, most noted for his involvement in World War II, when he unsuccessfully commanded the British forces during the Battle of Singapore, and surrendered to the much smaller Japanese army there.

Chronology

• 1914: At the outbreak of WWI, aged 27, he volunteered in the army, joining as a private.
• 1916: As a first lieutenant, he went with the Bedfordshire Regiment to France for the Battle of Somme, and won the Military Cross.
• 1917: He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and given command of a battalion, shortly afterwards he was given a brigade to command.
• 1918: He was recommended for the staff of Sandhurst.
• 1919: He volunteered to serve in the north of Russia.
• 1920: He commanded the Essex Regiment during the Anglo-Irish War, members of which were targeted (uniquely) without the chance of surrender, due to the frequent deaths of prisoners in their custody.
• 1920s: He served in Nigeria.
• 1930: He entered the Staff College, whose commander was General Sir John Dill, and spent the next ten years working under him.
• 1939: He commanded the 43rd Division of the British Expeditionary Force.
• 1940: After the Dunkirk evacuation, he commanded the 44th Division, protecting the English coast.
• Spring, 1941: He was placed in command of the British forces in Malaya.
• 8 December 1941: The Japanese Army landed on the Malay peninsula (the day after Pearl Harbor, but more than 24 hours, because of the international date line).
• 25 January 1942: He ordered a general retreat across the Johore Strait to the island of Singapore.
• 8 February 1942: 13,000 Japanese troops landed on the northwest corner of Singapore island.
• 9 February 1942: 17,000 Japanese troops landed in west Singapore.
• 15 February 1942: He surrendered Singapore to Lieutenant-General Tomoyuki Yamashita of the Imperial Japanese Army; 130,000 Allied personnel surrendered to fewer than 30,000 Japanese. He was held prisoner in Manchuria until the end of World War II.
• 1949: His book, "The War in Malaysia", was published.
• 31 January 1966: He died at the age of 78, in the UK.