The Monocled Mutineer

In 1920 Britains most wanted man fled to the hills of Tomintoul

Toplis was born on the 20th August 1896, he was a british criminal and imposter during the 1st World War.  he claimed to have taken a major part in Etaples Mutiny as the monocled mutineer. in 1912 at the age of just 15 he was sentenced to two years hard labour for the attemped rape of a 15 year old girl.

On the 24th of April 1920 Toplis went AWOL after taxicab driver Sidney George Spicer was found dead from a gunshot wound, Spicer's inquest took place in a barn on Thruxton Down.  the jury returned a verdict of wilful murder by Percy Toplis, foreshadowing the possiblity of his execution when caught, it was the first british inquest in modern times to delcare a man guilty of murder in his absence.  Toplis spent the next week posing as an officer but when police started to close in he fled to Monmouth and then to Tomintoul.

On the 1st of June a farmer saw smoke in a lone gatekeepers bothy, he alerted police constable George Greig.  Together they went to the bothy and found Toplis sitting by the fire place.  When he couldn't talk his way out her produced his pistol and fired, wounding oth the farmer and constable Greig.  Toplis then fled on a bicyle and cycled to Aberdeen and took the train to Carlisle. After a stand off with police Toplis suffered fatal gunshot wounds to the chest on the 6th of june.  Percy Toplis was just 23 years old when he was killed, his body is buried in an unmarked grave at Penrith Cemetary.

            Tomintoul Bothy                                                                           Percy Toplis