A.E. Percival nació el 26 de diciembre de 1887 en Hertfordshire, Inglaterra. Estuvo casado con Margaret Elizabeth "Betty" MacGregor. Murió el 31 de enero de 1966 en Westminster, Londres, Inglaterra.
On 15 February 1942, he surrendered Singapore to Lieutenant-General
Tomoyuki Yamashita of the Imperial Japanese Army. 130,000 Allied
personnel surrendered to less than 30,000 Japanese. He was held
prisoner in Manchuria until the end of World War II.
In going to Malaya I realized 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.
