WALBRIDGE, Percival Norman

Known as: 
Wally
Rank: 
Captain
Unit / Base: 
Training Centres WW2
Regiment/Corps: 
Small Arms School Corps and Somerset Light Infantry
Service: 
Army
Number: 
168795
Captain Percival Walbridge served as a Weapons Training Officer at STC Lochailort and the Commando Basic Training Centre.
 
There is reference in the London Gazettes to his promotion on the 18th Jan. 1941 from a Warrant Officer class 2 at the Small Arms School to Lieutenant Somerset LI.
[Source: LG 11Feb 1941; Supp 35075; Page 891].
 
Major James Dunning, No 4 Cdo and CBTC Instructor, wrote this *, "The Commandos owe a great debt to the inspirational tuition of Wally Walbridge, one of the great Commando Instructors whose influence was considerable. Together with that formidable couple, Captains Fairbairn and Sykes, at Lochailort he brought a new dimension - an aggressive one - to weapon training and musketry. He created and nurtured a new breed of weapon training instructors who passed on, in turn, his philosophy and methods to their charges with great success."
 
His death was announced in Commando Association newsletter 87 of September 1988 with his final rank shown as Major. It also shows he also served with 3 Commando Brigade.
 
*The British Commandos Origins and Training of a Special Unit (also published as It Had to be Tough)
 

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