Quick Facts
Biography
Lieutenant-General Sir Lionel Vivian Bond, KBE, CB (16 June 1884 – 4 October 1961) was a senior officer in the British Army.
Military career
Born the son of Major-General Sir Francis George Bond (1856–1930), and brother of Major-General Richard Lawrence Bond (1890–1979), Bond was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Royal Engineers in 1903. He first saw action in military operations in Zakka Khel and Mohmand expeditions, India in 1908. He also fought in Mesopotamia during World War I.
After graduating from the first postwar course at the Staff College, Camberley in 1919, in 1922, Bond published a literary attack on Captain Liddell Hart's new theories on tank warfare, stigmatising them as "flapdoodle of the most misleading kind".
Bond was appointed Chief Engineer at Aldershot Command in 1934, General Officer Commanding Chatham Area in 1935 and Commandant of School of Military Engineering and Inspector of the Royal Engineers in 1938.
Defence of Singapore
During World War II, Bond took over Sir William Dobbie as General Officer Commanding Malaya on 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. Thus in early 1939, Bond decided on the strategy of close defence of Southern Johore, and the Singapore island.
He completed his term of office in Malaya on 29 April 1941. He retired from active military service soon after, and died in 1961.
Quotes
"The United States Fleet is the most powerful factor deterring the activity of an enemy of Britain in the Pacific area."
