WALBRIDGE, Percival Norman

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Known as:

Wally

Rank:

Captain (later Major)

Unit / Base:

Training Centres WW2

Regiment/Corps:

Small Arms School Corps and Somerset Light Infantry

Service:

Army

Service Number:

168795

Born:

Monday, May 28, 1906

Died :

Sunday, April 3, 1988

Place died or last resided:

Alnwick, Northumberland

Age:

Captain Percival Walbridge served as a Weapons Training Officer at both STC Lochailort and the Commando Basic Training Centre. Also served 3 Commando Brigade [1][3].

18.01.1941 W02, Small Arms School, commissioned Lieutenant, Somerset L.I. [2].
Major James Dunning, No 4 Cdo and CBTC Instructor wrote "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."

Sources

[1] Commando Association newsletter 31 (1960) and Obituaries in newsletter 87 (1988)

[2] London Gazette 35075, page 891.

[3] Dunning, The British Commandos Origins and Training of a Special Unit (also published as It Had to be Tough).

Archive pages :

Commando Training WW2