Archibald Paris
Encyclopedia
Brigadier Archibald Charles Melvill Paris DSO
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...

 MC
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....

 was a British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

 officer.

He was the son of Major-General Archibald Paris, KCB a Royal Marine officer who commanded the 63rd (Royal Navy) Division
British 63rd (Royal Naval) Division
The British 63rd Division was a First World War division of the New Army. The division had been formed at the outbreak of war as the Royal Naval Division...

 during the First World War, and of Lady Paris (née Melvill). He married the former Ruth Norton, who was left as his widow.

Although he is better known for having died during the events that followed the sinking of the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 ship Rooseboom off Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...

 in 1942, he was also one of the few British commanders that put up a good fight against the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese during the Battle of Malaya
Battle of Malaya
The Malayan Campaign was a campaign fought by Allied and Japanese forces in Malaya, from 8 December 1941 – 31 January 1942 during the Second World War. The campaign was dominated by land battles between British Commonwealth army units, and the Imperial Japanese Army...

 and the subsequent Fall of Singapore
Battle of Singapore
The Battle of Singapore was fought in the South-East Asian theatre of the Second World War when the Empire of Japan invaded the Allied stronghold of Singapore. Singapore was the major British military base in Southeast Asia and nicknamed the "Gibraltar of the East"...

.

Battle of Malaya

In December 1941 Brig Archie Paris was in command of the Indian 12th Infantry Brigade
Indian 12th Infantry Brigade
The 12th Indian Infantry Brigade was part of the Singapore Fortress garrison during the Second World War.- History :The 12th Indian Brigade was one of the regular units based in Malaya before the Japanese invasion in December 1942...

, part of the Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

 Garrison. When the battle started in Northern Malaya, Paris's 12th Brigade was sent to protect the retreat of the Indian 11th Infantry Division, which it did successfully, to the extent that it surprised the Japanese, inflicting high casualties on some of their more over-confident units.

When Gen. Arthur Percival sacked Maj. Gen. David Murray-Lyon
David Murray-Lyon
Major-General David Murrey Murray-Lyon, DSO & Bar, MC, was an officer in the Indian Army. His final appointment was as the commanding officer of Indian 11th Infantry Division in Malaya until sacked by General Percival...

 from command of the 11th Indian Division, Paris was given temporary command, until the disastrous Battle of Slim River
Battle of Slim River
The Battle of Slim River occurred during the Malayan campaign in January 1942 between the Imperial Japanese Army and the British Indian Army on the west coast of Malaya.-Background:...

, when Maj. Gen. Billy Key
Berthold Wells Key
Major-General Berthold Wells 'Billy' Key CB, DSO, MC, ADC was a British Indian Army officer.- History :...

 took over and Paris resumed command of the 12th Brigade. Paris commanded the 12th Brigade throughout the retreat down Malaya and the subsequent battles on Singapore
Battle of Singapore
The Battle of Singapore was fought in the South-East Asian theatre of the Second World War when the Empire of Japan invaded the Allied stronghold of Singapore. Singapore was the major British military base in Southeast Asia and nicknamed the "Gibraltar of the East"...

.

Rooseboom

With Singapore about to surrender in February 1942, Percival attempted to save personnel who were successful at fighting the Japanese and Paris was one of the chosen. He escaped aboard the Dutch ship Rooseboom, which was sunk off Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...

. Although he survived the sinking along with about 80 other passengers in one lifeboat
Lifeboat (rescue)
A rescue lifeboat is a boat rescue craft which is used to attend a vessel in distress, or its survivors, to rescue crewmen and passengers. It can be hand pulled, sail powered or powered by an engine...

, he did not survive the shocking 28-day ordeal of drifting 100 miles. There were only five survivors.

This account of the struggle for survival after the sinking of the Rooseboom was based on survivor and Argyll and Sutherland Highlander
Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders
The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 5th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland....

 Walter Gibson
Walter Gibson
Walter Gibson may refer to:*Walter B. Gibson , American author and magician*Walter M. Gibson , English adventurer, Mormon missionary, and government official in the Kingdom of Hawaii...

's book The Boat and taken from his obituary in the Times On Line (April 27, 2005):

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