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Sir Philip John Denton Toosey | |
|---|---|
 Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey c.1942 | |
| Born | 12 August 1904 Oxton, Birkenhead |
| Died | 22 December 1975 (aged 71) |
| Buried | Landican Cemetery |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Service/ |  British Army |
| Years of service | 1927–1954 |
| Rank | Brigadier |
| Service number | 38862 |
| Unit | Royal Artillery Hertfordshire Yeomanry |
| Commands | 135th (Hertfordshire Yeomanry) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Awards | Knight Bachelor Commander of the Order of the British Empire Distinguished Service Order Territorial Decoration |
Brigadier Sir Philip John Denton Toosey CBE, DSO, TD, JP (12 August 1904 – 22 December 1975) was, as a lieutenant colonel, the senior Allied officer in the Japanese prisoner-of-war camp at Tha Maa Kham (known as Tamarkan) in Thailand during World War II. The men at this camp built Bridge 277 of the Burma Railway as later fictionalized in the book The Bridge over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle, and since adapted into the Oscar-winning film The Bridge on the River Kwai in which Alec Guinness played the senior British officer, Lt Col Nicholson. Both the book and film outraged former prisoners because Toosey did not collaborate with the enemy, unlike the fictional Lt Col Nicholson.