Francis Percy Toplis (22 August 1896 – 6 June 1920) was an English criminal and imposter active during and after the First World War. Before the war he was imprisoned for attempted rape. During the war he served as a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps, but regularly posed as an officer while on leave, wearing a monocle. After the war he became notorious following the murder of a taxi driver and the wounding of a police officer who attempted to apprehend him. The manhunt was major news at the time. He was tracked down and killed in a gunfight with police.
In 1978 a book was published which claimed that he had a large part in the Étaples Mutiny from 9–12 September 1917, as "The Monocled Mutineer". The authors suggested that he was pursued by the political establishment in a vendetta and may have been innocent of the murder. The book was dramatised by the BBC in 1986 as The Monocled Mutineer, creating considerable controversy.
Critics say that there is no evidence he was present and that official records show that Toplis's unit was en route to India during the Étaples mutiny. However, the official records that are often cited to refute claims that Toplis took part in the Mutiny have been extrapolated from a summary of his movements that appear in a letter addressed to the Chief Constable of Hampshire Police from Superintendent James L. Cox.Bilton, Jaynie (2002). To The Chief Constable: RE: Percy Francis Topliss, Jaynie Walters The letter, dated 17 May 1920, describes how Toplis was deployed to the Dardanelles after the outset of war in 1915 with a Field Ambulance Company, was wounded and sent home and "then went on trooping duty to Salonika, Egypt and back to the Depot and then to India in the troopship Orontes". However, the letter from Superintendent Cox makes no mention of a 'wanted notice' that featured in the Police Gazette dated 18 October 1918 which states that Toplis deserted from Salonika on 15 June that same year."Nottinghamshire", Police Gazette page.1, 18 October 1918 The six-month 'hard labour' sentence served on him by the Nottingham magistrate in December 1918"Wanted at Mansfield", Sheffield Daily Telegraph 2 December 1918, p.3 suggests Toplis did not see out his service days in Egypt or Bombay as some have alleged. As Toplis's British Army Service Records have not been retained by the MOD, precise details about his movements remain unclear. With the exception of Cox's letter and a Medal Card,Toplis, Percy: Royal Army Medical Corps, No.47551, WO 372/20/59027, National Archives, Kew no other official records of his service history exist. Despite the omission of actual dates in Superintendent Cox's summary of his movements during the war, many historians feel it is unlikely that Toplis was in France to participate in the mutiny.
Early life
Toplis was born at Sanforth Street, Chesterfield, Derbyshire and christened on 25 September 1896 at Skegby. His parents, Herbert and Rejoice Elizabeth (née Webster), were unable to support him and he was raised by his grandparents.Chasing Percy
He was educated at South Normanton Elementary School, where he was reportedly an unruly bully who was frequently caned. In March 1908, aged 11, he was birched for acquiring two suits using false pretences. His grandparents were no longer able to control him and the court released him to his aunt, Annie Webster. Toplis left school in 1910 aged 13, and became a blacksmith's apprentice at the Blackwell colliery, but after a poor attendance record and an argument with the pit manager he took to an itinerant life in Scotland. In 1911 he was sentenced to ten days imprisonment in Dumfries for the non-payment of two train tickets. He returned to England and in 1912 it is alleged that aged 15, Toplis was sentenced to two years hard labour for the attempted rape of 15-year-old farmer's daughter Nellie North at Sutton-on-Sea in Lincolnshire, serving his sentence in Lincoln Prison and released in 1914."Alleged Assault on Girl at Sutton-on-Sea", Boston Guardian 9 March 1912 However, while Toplis's name is entered in the records of the Quarter Sessions for the assault on Nellie North,A Calendar of Prisoners Tried at the General Quarter Sessions of the Peace for the Year 1912, Series HO140, Item 297 the Boston Guardian of 9 March reports that the man charged at Alford Police Station was a man named James Topliss. It was reported that Topliss had followed the girl past Brown's Farm and assaulted her at a railway crossing. After her ordeal the girl was examined at a surgery in Mablethorpe where signs of "force and violence were found." When apprehended, Topliss gave his name as William Edmundston of Sutton and alleged that he had been on his way to Skegness to visit an uncle. The Census of 1911 shows that farm labourer James Topliss was living with his 12-year-old son Walter James Topliss in nearby Withern in Alford at the time of the incident.1911 Census For England & Wales, James Topliss, b.1871, Ramcrift Withern Alford, Withern with Stain, Lincolnshire, England Blackwell in Derbyshire is some 85 miles away.
First World War In 1915, the year after the outbreak of the First World War, Toplis joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and served as a stretcher bearer, his first active duty being at Loos. His unit was shipped overseas to take part in the landings at Gallipoli, and when they returned, Toplis was hospitalised for dysentery. Afterwards he briefly worked in a munitions factory. His unit was later posted to Salonika and Egypt, but Toplis was sent back when he contracted malaria. Toplis made a public revisit to Blackwell posing in the uniform of a captain. The visit and some of his anecdotes were reported by the local newspaper, the Nottingham Evening Post, who took a photograph that they later released to the police for his "wanted" notice in 1920.
Alleged mutineer In 1978 William Allison and John Fairley published The Monocled Mutineer, in which they portray Percy Toplis as a leading participant in the Étaples mutiny as a consequence of his being among a band of deserters based in that area of France. They say that Toplis was sought in France following the mutiny and posters for his arrest were issued. The fact that the British authorities went to such lengths to apprehend or silence Toplis is thought by Allison and Fairley to add credence to the view that he was one of the only leaders of the mutiny that escaped retribution.
After the book was published, Toplis's supposed career as a mutineer was dramatised by Howard Barker in his 1980 play Crimes in Hot Countries, in which he is portrayed as an irrepressibly subversive seducer, "irresponsible and amoral, with little concern as to the consequences of his action for others".Charles Lamb, The Theatre of Howard Barker, Routledge, New York, 2004, p.62. The 1986 BBC series entitled The Monocled Mutineer, an adaptation by Alan Bleasdale of the book in which Toplis was played by Paul McGann, portrayed him in a much more positive light.Hanna, Emma, The Great War on the Small Screen: Representing the First World War in Contemporary Britain, Edinburgh University Press, 2009, pp.120ff. The production fuelled accusations by the Conservative government of the time of left-wing bias at the BBC. It was not only the right-wing press who denounced the accuracy of the series and the book on which it was based; the socialist historian Julian Putkowski, originally recruited as a historical advisor to the programme, also publicly criticised the 'factual errors and misinterpretations that occur in the series'.Over the top with Hebert, Hugh 'Percy Toplis: The war with the BBC goes on. Hugh Hebert reports on the latest battle', The Guardian (1959–2003) [London (UK)] 15 Sep 1986: 11. Putkowski pointed out that it was unlikely that Toplis played any part in the mutiny.
Any conclusive evidence that Percy Toplis was involved in the Étaples mutiny might have been contained in official files kept at the UK's National Archives. However, the records from the Étaples Board of Enquiry were destroyed a long time ago because they were only required to be kept for 10 years.
After the War In August 1918, Toplis's father died and soon afterwards Percy deserted from Blackpool. He was sentenced at Nottingham Assizes to six months in prison for fraud. When released in 1920, he joined the Royal Army Service Corps and was stationed at Bulford Camp. He was soon selling rationed fuel on the black market, forging false papers to steal other soldiers' salaries and wearing a colonel's uniform when he visited women in town. He often used a gold monocle as part of his disguise.
Murder and pursuit
Toplis went AWOL again on 24 April 1920. After 9:00 p.m., taxi driver Sidney George Spicer was found dead from a gunshot wound on Thruxton Down, near Andover. Toplis was seen in Bulford Camp around 11:00 p.m. The inquest into Spicer's death took place in a barn on Thruxton Down. The jury returned a verdict of "wilful murder" by Percy Toplis, foreshadowing the possibility of his execution when caught; it was the first British inquest in modern times to declare a man guilty of murder in his absence.
Toplis spent the next couple of weeks in London posing as an officer. The police began to close in and he fled to Monmouth, Wales. According to the Dundee Courier of 7 May, a cap with Toplis's name in it was found in Pontypool, just 11 miles from Ebbw Vale. A week later there was a sighting of Toplis at a prayer meeting at the Salem Baptist Chapel in Blaina, little more than a mile from Nantyglo, the birthplace of Jesse Robert Short, the only man known to have been executed for his role in the Étaples mutiny.
A diary read at the inquest into his death suggests that Toplis arrived in Tomintoul, Scotland on 6 May. According to the People's Journal of 12 June, Toplis found work as a woodcutter on a forestry and shooting estate in Dunmaglass. The same report claims that on 11 May Toplis arrived at The Temperance Hotel in central Inverness, signing his name in the hotel register, "G. Waters". According to the owner of the hotel, the stranger mixed freely with other guests, entertaining them on the piano and explaining he had been in Russia and was now looking for a job. His repertoire included a selection of hymns and the Russian National Anthem."Toplis in Inverness", Highland News, Saturday 5 June 1920 Within days of his arrival at the hotel, the proprietor became suspicious and confronted Toplis, putting it to him quite bluntly, "It strikes me there is a mystery about you, young man.""Played Hymn Tunes", Nottingham Journal 8 June 1920 Toplis is believed to have left the hotel on 13 May. After journeying as far afield as Muir of Ord and Lochrosque Toplis returned to the bothy in Tomintoul. On 1 June a farmer saw smoke rising from the chimney. He alerted Police Constable George Greig and together they found Toplis sitting by a fire. Toplis fired his pistol, wounding them both and then fled on a bicycle. He cycled to Aberdeen and took a train to Carlisle, where he arrived on 5 June. He was seen in an Army base in Carlisle Castle.
Around this time there was also a rumour that Toplis had fled to the Isle of Man.Isle of Man Examiner, Saturday, August 28, 1920; Page: 3