The monocled mutineer, Paul McGann.
I have been looking at this infamous Blackwell resident from the First World War.
A lot of stories surround this individual. They are all very different, so someone is going to be wrong.
First let’s have a look at where he was born.
If you are from Blackwell. He was born there.
His grandfather Herbert and his father, also Herbert, was living at 73 Colliery Houses, Blackwell, in 1891. They had moved from Basford, Nottinghamshire in 1890 to work at ‘A’ Winning colliery.
Herbert married Rejoice Elizabeth Webster on 7th Nov 1894 at Skegby, Notts. Percy was born 22nd August 1896 and Christened on 25th September 1896 at Skegby.
Rejoice was born at Skegby so this was also a likely place to give birth.
If he had been born in Blackwell, South Normanton or Skegby, he would have been registered in Mansfield. He was registered in Chesterfield and although I can’t prove it, I believe the account from Penrith Museum is the closest to correct.
They say he was born on Sanforth Street, Chesterfield, Derbyshire. Sanforth Street was actually in Newbold, which was a separate village until 1920, when it became part of the Parish of Chesterfield.
Sanforth Street was a long street with many houses and businesses but I could not find any link between the Toplis or Webster families in either 1891 or 1901, to point to the reason Rejoice would go there to have a baby. The only link is the railway which went between Blackwell and Newbold at the time and which made travel easy.
One report that went into great detail says he was born at 30 Carr Lane, South Normanton.
30 Carr Lane is shown built around 1900. That’s a few years after Percy was born. The only link between South Normanton and Percy is the fact he attended school there for a while.
He was living with his Grandmother at Skegby by 1901.
Obviously not attending school at South Normanton which is several miles away.
The Penrith account of his life now goes a little wrong. They have him leaving school in 1909 and made him out to be a bad boy. He was 13 years old.
Why would someone that hated school so much stay on an extra year when he didn’t need to? You could leave at 12 if you had work.
They have him working as a blacksmith at the colliery but getting the sack for bad attendance.
He would not have got a good job like Blacksmith with bad behaviour and a limited education.
The job he actually got was a ‘pony handler underground’ which is more fitting. He was also still doing that job in 1911 when living with his father in Westhouses (the next small village to Blackwell).
Incorrect middle initial but correct age.
I do not have access to his criminal record (it is not available online yet).
According to most reports, he was gaoled for attempted rape in 1912 and sentenced to 2 years at Lincoln Prison.
Once released, he joined the army in August 1914.
He joined the Royal Army Medical Corp and was a stretcher bearer. On 11th July 1915 he was sent to the Balkans and took part in the August offensive at Gallipoli, where he suffered greatly. He was wounded and got Dysentery and possibly Malaria. He was sent home to recover. What he went though would have been enough for most people, I think.
According to the Penrith Museum, he was then posted to Egypt and India. Not according to his service record, however.
Several newspaper articles after his death, had him taking part in of one of the biggest army mutinies at Étaples. How he got there, I do not know, reports are that he was in Salonika at the time.
Salonika was another part of the Eastern Front and again, a place full of disease and horror. He deserted in June 1918, possibly on news of his father’s illness.
In August 1918 is father, Herbert died. The following newspaper report covers the next part of Percy's life. He is obviously suffering greatly from the war and his father’s death.
It appeared in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph of Monday 2nd December 1918:
WANTED AT MANSFIELD
Percy Francis Toplis, alias Williams, (30) was charged at the Nottingham Shire Hall on Saturday with obtaining a gold bracelet watch by fraud at Hucknall.
It was stated that the prisoner called at Mr Tweed’s jewellers shop in High Street dressed as an officer of the ASC, selected a watch value £8 17s 6d and made out a cheque for £9, observing that the extra half-crown was the hallmark of a gentleman. The cheque was returned, “No account” and the book from which it had been taken belonged to a London officer.
The Deputy Chief Constable said the prisoner was a Derbyshire miner and had deserted from the RAMC at Salonika in June. In addition to this charge, he was wanted on a charge of obtaining £10 by false pretences at Mansfield Woodhouse in September.
Prisoner, who said he was an absentee and not a deserter, was sent to gaol for six months.
After being released from prison, he joined back up with the Army Service Corp. He was based in England and the newspapers have him doing all sorts of illegal things while in his current role.
He then set out on his more famous role as the Monocled Mutineer.
Photo taken by the local paper.
On 24th April 1920, after a taxi driver had been murdered, Toplis deserted again. Whether his timing was bad or he actually did the murder, no one will know.
For the first time in history, a person (Percy) was convicted of murder in his absence.
He had gone to London dressed as an officer, but on hearing he was a wanted man, he went north.
He turned up and gave a speech at Blackwell, dressed in a Captain’s uniform. He used this costume to obtain food and other goods on his travels.
He was ‘off the rails’ at this point and things went downhill.
He fled to rural Scotland but was discovered by a policeman and a farmer. He shot and wounded both of them and fled again on a push-bike.
He was finally shot and killed at Penrith on 6th June 1920.
The conspiracy
He was convicted in his absence and a lot of negative things were printed about him.
He was shot by one of 3 policemen but no one knows which.
He was said to have been the ringleader of the major mutiny in France. Although he wasn’t there, and if he was, he was the only one to escape.
He had escaped, been in prison, re-joined the army and only after being convicted for murder, had he been placed in France.
All records of the incident, including the mutiny records, have all been lost. We waited 100 years for the government to release them and now they don’t have them.
Nothing adds up except I think he suffered greatly during the war and after. I am still not sure he was guilty of everything and a lot of others don’t believe he killed the taxi driver, Sidney George Spicer.
A book and TV series was made about him but they were mostly fiction and the television programme has never been repeated (a first for the BBC).
All I can say is 'don't believe everything you read on Wikipedia'.
Percy Toplis