Lieutenant-General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was normall ...

Sir Lionel Vivian Bond, (16 June 1884 – 4 October 1961) was a senior officer in the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

Military career

Bond was the son of Major-General Sir Francis George Bond (1856–1930), and elder brother of Major-General Richard Lawrence Bond (1890–1979). After attending the

Royal Military Academy, Woolwich The Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of Officer (armed forces), commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers o ...

, Bond was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

in 1903. He first saw action in military operations in the

Mohmand Expedition of 1908 The Mohmand Expedition of 1908 was a British punitive expedition against Mohmand rebels in the British Raj. Description of the Mohmands Mohmand tribes In 1908, the Mohmands were primarily divided into two main branches: the Independent ...

. He also fought in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Bond graduated from the first postwar course at the

Staff College, Camberley Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, was a staff college for the British Army and the presidency armies of British India (later merged to form the Indian Army). It had its origins in the Royal Military College, High Wycombe, founded in 1799, which ...

in 1919. In 1922, he published a literary attack on Captain

Liddell Hart Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart (31 October 1895 – 29 January 1970), commonly known throughout most of his career as Captain B. H. Liddell Hart, was a British soldier, military historian, and military theorist. He wrote a series of military his ...

's new theories on tank warfare, stigmatising them as "flapdoodle of the most misleading kind". Bond was appointed Chief Engineer at

Aldershot Command Aldershot Command was a Home Command of the British Army. History After the success of the Chobham Manoeuvres of 1853, reformers of the British Army decided to create a permanent training camp at Aldershot. To begin the preliminary work a smal ...

in 1934,

General Officer Commanding General officer commanding (GOC) is the usual title given in the armies of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth (and some other nations, such as Ireland) to a general officer who holds a command appointment. Thus, a general might be the GOC ...

Chatham Area in 1935, and

Commandant Commandant ( or ; ) is a title often given to the officer in charge of a military (or other uniformed service) training establishment or academy. This usage is common in English-speaking nations. In some countries it may be a military or police ...

of School of Military Engineering and Inspector of the

in 1938.

Defence of Singapore

During the Second World War, Bond took over from Major General

Sir William Dobbie Lieutenant General Sir William George Shedden Dobbie, (12 July 1879 – 3 October 1964) was a British Army officer who served in the Second Boer War and the First and Second World Wars. Early life William was born in Madras to a civil servan ...

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

in July 1939. Bond was aware that his predecessor had made an assessment on the war situation in Malaya, and was convinced with his findings that the Japanese would attempt to seize Singapore by attacking Malaya from the north through Siam. With only a small number of British force in his command, he knew he could not undertake the defence of the entire Malayan Peninsula. Bond decided on a strategy of close defence of Southern

Johore Johor, also spelled Johore,'' is a state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. It borders with Pahang, Malacca and Negeri Sembilan to the north. Johor has maritime borders with Singapore to the south and Indonesia to the east and ...

, and the Singapore island.Kirby, Stanley Woodburn (1971) ''Singapore: the chain of disaster''. London: Cassell. Bond completed his term of office in Malaya on 29 April 1941. He retired from active military service soon after, and died in 1961.

References

Bibliography

*
Out-generalled, Outwitted, and Outfought
: Generals Percival and Bennett in Malaya, 1941–42'' / Lieutenant General John Coates (Retd), Australian Army Journal, Vol II, No. 1 (Winter 2004). pp. 201–214. * Mackaness, George (ed.) ''Fresh Light on Bligh: being some unpublished correspondence of Captain William Bligh, R.N., and Lieutenant Francis Godolphin Bond, R.N., with Lieutenant Bond's manuscript notes made on the voyage of H.M.S. Providence, 1791–1795.''

* Activities of Australian troops before the fall of Singapore. The visit of Senator H.S. Foll, Minister for Information and others to Singapore. The opening of the Anzac Club and general views of the club. Scenes of the Sultan of Selangor, Major-General H. Gordon Bennett, Major-General L.V. Bond, Air Chief Marshal Sir R. Brooke-Popham, the Australian Actress Betty Bryant, Mr J. Williams Acting Director of the Department of Information, Mr T.S. Gurr Associated Newspapers Ltd.(film)
Found in Australian War Memorial (ID No. F01157)
Chapter 7: Operations Mounted By North Western Area 1942 – 1945
pp. 169 – 226), found in Joseph Wilson, David (2003) ''The Eagle and the Albatross: Australian Aerial Maritime Operations 1921 – 1971.'' Thesis University College, Defence Force Academy, University of New South Wales, Australia.

found in ''Documents Relating to New Zealand's Participation in the Second World War 1939–45: Volume III''. the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre, Victoria University of Wellington. , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Bond, Lionel 1884 births 1961 deaths British Army generals of World War II Royal Engineers officers Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Companions of the Order of the Bath Military of Singapore under British rule Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley Freemasons of the United Grand Lodge of England British Army personnel of World War I British Army lieutenant generals Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Military personnel from Aldershot

Military career

Defence of Singapore

References

Bibliography

Further reading