Percy Toplis

Francis Percy Toplis (20 August 1896 – 6 June 1920) was a British 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 subsequent 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 took a major part in the Étaples Mutiny from 9–12 September 1917, as "The Monocled Mutineer", during the war. The authors suggested that he was subsequently 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 actually present, and official records show that Toplis' regiment was en route to India during the Étaples mutiny. No evidence exists to show that Toplis was absent from his regiment. However, neither is there evidence that Toplis ever went to India. He may only have got as far as Malta. It is now believed highly unlikely that he returned to Europe in time to participate in the mutiny.

Toplis was born at 30 Carr Lane, South Normanton, near Alfreton, 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.

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, aged 15, he was sentenced to two years hard labour for the attempted rape of a 15-year-old girl at Mansfield, serving sentence in Lincoln Prison. He was released in 1914.

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