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Lieutenant-General Arthur Ernest Percival, being escorted by a Japanese officer, with his party carrying both a flag of truce and the Union Jack, meets with the Japanese to negotiate the surrender of the Allied forces in Singapore. It was the largest surrender of British-led forces ever. The British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, described it as 'the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history'.
The German Navy submarine U-20 fired one torpedo at RMS Lusitania (below, left) eleven miles off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland at 1410 hours. There were 1,959 passengers and crew aboard and 1,195 lost their lives when she sank.
Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck GCB GCIE CSI DSO OBE was born on 21 June 1884 in Aldershot where his father's regiment was serving. He died in Marrakesh on 23 March 1981 aged 96.
The Auchinlecks were an Ulster-Scots family from County Fermanagh. His nephew, Lieutenant D H Auchinleck, served with the 1st Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers during the Boer War, and was killed in the Retreat from Mons 1914 with the 2nd Inniskillings.
Born in 1898, the son of Lieutenant Colonel Walter Francis Templer, Gerald Templer was commissioned into the Royal Irish Fusiliers, his father's regiment, as a 17-year old in 1916. Too young to be sent to the front, he was initially posted to the Faughs' 3rd (Service) Battalion in Buncrana. In October 1917 he was sent to the Western Front, eventually being assigned as a platoon commander in the 1st Battalion, part of 107 Brigade of the 36th (Ulster) Division.
General Sir John D'Arcy Anderson GBE KCB DSO (1908-1988), born in Downpatrick, was commissioned into the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards in 1929. During the Second World War, he served in France, the Middle East and Italy.
John Hare commanded the 27th (Inniskillings) Regiment of Foot at Waterloo for which he was promoted Brevet Lieutenant Colonel. He was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath, a Knight of Hanover and a Knight of St. Vladimir (fourth class).
Travers Edward Clarke was born on 6 April 1871 and died on 2 February 1962 aged 90.
He attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in October 1890. He served with his Regiment on the North West Frontier of India and took part in the Tirah Expedition of 1897-98 and the Boer War 1900-1902. During the First World War, he held a variety of regimental and staff appointments including command of 23 Brigade in 8 Division.
The 1st Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and the 1st/2nd Battalion The Royal Irish Fusiliers (Princess Victoria's) were linked to form one 'Corps' of infantry regiments and the Depots were combined at Omagh.
The 'Soldier's Companion', a collection of biography, anecdotes and poetry, printed in 1824, included the following anecdote of a soldier of the 83rd Regiment:
I met with Death in his country,
With his scythe and his hollow eye,
Walking the roads of Belgium.
I looked and he passed me by.
Since he passed me by in Plug Street,
In the wood of the evil name,
I shall not now lie with the heroes,
I shall not share their name;
I shall never be as they are,
A name in the land of the Free,
Since I looked on Death in Flanders
And he did not look at me.
Part III of Songs From An Evil Wood by Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany,
Captain, The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.
