Percival Spearman Wilkinson was born in
County Durham in July 1865. He received his formal education at
Uppingham School,
Rutland, a prestigious
public school. Unlike many of his future contemporaries, Wilkinson did not attend the
Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Instead, his military career began when he commissioned as a
lieutenant into the 3rd (
Militia) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers (later the
Royal Northumberland Fusiliers), on 10 November 1883. He transferred to the
Regular Army on 28 April 1886. He was promoted to
captain in January 1895. He was seconded for service with the
Colonial Office in October 1897 and "served in West Africa on operations on the Niger" and received promotion to
brevet major in July 1899. In 1900 he served "on operations in Ashanti, where he was wounded". He was promoted to major, on augmentation, in July 1900, was made a brevet
lieutenant colonel in January 1901, a brevet
colonel in February 1904, and, upon being made a substantive colonel and temporary
brigadier general in September 1909, became inspector general of the
Royal West African Frontier Force at the same time. Promoted to
major general on 8 August 1912, he served as
general officer commanding (GOC) of the 1st Secunderabad Infantry Brigade, part of the
9th (Secunderabad) Division, on internal security duties in
India, taking over command from Major General
Francis George Bond in November 1913. He was appointed a
Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) and
Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in January 1914 in the
1914 New Year Honours. , and officers of the Northumberland Fusiliers, near Millencourt, France, October 1916. The outbreak of the
First World War, which began in the summer of 1914, saw him still in India and as GOC of the brigade. In January 1915, while still abroad, he was appointed colonel of the Northumberland Fusiliers, a prestigious regimental role he would hold for the next two decades. He then served as GOC of the
50th (Northumbrian) Division in place of Major General
The Earl of Cavan on the
Western Front from August 1915 until February 1918 during the
First World War. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the
Order of St Michael and St George in June 1917, making him
Sir Percival. After relinquishing command of the 50th, he was returned to Britain and made inspector of musketry in March 1918. Upon relinquishing this assignment in June 1919, he returned to command 50th (Northumbrian) Division as a peacetime formation in the UK in July 1919 before he retired from the army on 4 July 1923. In retirement he was chief commissioner of the
St. John Ambulance. Having been made colonel of the Northumberland Fusiliers (soon to be the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers) twenty years earlier, he relinquished this position in July 1935, when Major General
William Norman Herbert succeeded him. He died on 4 November 1953 at the age of 88. ==References==