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| “ | Born a royal in Cameroon, Arthur Kingsley studied at Cambridge and joined the British army to fight for the free world. A true leader, Arthur protects those whose serve beside him, earning their undying loyalty and respect. | „ |
| ~ Arthur Kingsley's bio. |
| “ | Our mission was complete, but there'd be more. Forged in the fires, we were the tip of the spear. We... were the Vanguard. | „ |
| ~ Kingsley's last narration in the campaign. |
Lieutenant Arthur Kingsley is the main protagonist of the 2021 video game Call of Duty: Vanguard, one of the protagonists of the Vanguard comics, and a playable character in Call of Duty: Warzone, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, and Call of Duty: Mobile.
He is a British Army paratrooper who became recognized for his bravery during Operation Tonga, where he showed excellent leadership and brilliant strategy. Kingsley was recruited to become the field leader of Task Force Vanguard, a group formed by Carver Butcher to find intel about the German's project "Phoenix". During the campaign, he also acts as the narrator for each mission, providing information about his teammates and their past that led to their recruitment.
He is voiced by Chiké Okonkwo.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Arthur Kingsley was born on September 27th, 1915 in the British Cameroon, British Empire to unnamed parents, and is a royal member of the Duala people. When he was sixteen years old, Arthur's father decided to have his son attend the University of Cambridge, where he studied international affairs. During his tenure at Cambridge, Arthur learned several languages, such as English, Russian, and German, which proved useful during his military service. After graduating from Cambridge in 1937, Kingsley joined the British Army two years before the British Empire would be involved with World War II. Once Britain declared war on Germany after the invasion of Poland, Kingsley was deployed in France in 1939 as part of the British Expeditionary Force, and was one of the soldiers who returned from the Battle of Dunkirk.
Operation Tonga[]
In 1944, Kingsley and the 9th Parachute battalion participated in Operation Tonga, an operation with the objective to assist the Allied Powers during the invasion of Normandy. Under the command of Captain Henry Baker, Kingsley and his teammates were tasked with destroying the Merville gun battery and capturing bridges to help the Allies. Arthur was the first in his team to parachute out of the plane, but he and his group were dispersed following their descent. Despite losing his rifle, Kingsley was able to regroup with Sergeant Richard Webb and the battalion, and was informed that Captain Baker was dead. Though Webb wanted to wait until the 6th Airborne arrived, Kingsley wanted to continue their mission, and was backed by Corporal Thomas "Tommy" Jones and his squad mates.
Leading the team, Kingsley was successful in taking the bridge, allowing them to reach to the gun battery by sending two vehicles into the enemy's mine field. During the course of the mission, Tommy was killed, but Kingsley was able to destroy the gun battery, but was nearly killed when his flare gun was damaged, causing British artillery to hit the area. Thankfully, Kingsley would manage to meet with a wounded Webb and use his flare gun, which halted the artillery and signaled Britain's victory. Afterward, Kingsley was recognized for his bravery and leadership skills, and Webb became Arthur's right-hand and confident in the British Army. The experience of the operation taught Arthur a valuable lesson in leadership, that being a leader was losing men, but honoring them by finishing the mission.
Recruitment[]
Following Operation Tonga, Arthur was assigned to the S.O.E. to become the leader of Task Force Vanguard, a special operations founded by Captain Carver Butcher to get intel on "Project Phoenix". Both Kingsley and Butcher searched for candidates for the task force, and Arthur would be given files on several soldiers that were recognized for their heroics. The recruits were Polina Petrova, the dreaded Soviet sniper, Lucas Riggs, an Australian demolition expert, Wade Jackson, a hotshot American pilot, and the operative Novak. Additionally, Kingsley had Webb be assigned to Vanguard since the latter was his right-hand, and the group were sent to Hamburg, Germany to find intel. From reading their files, Kingsley respected his teammates and saw that they were the best candidates for their skills and personalities.
Call of Duty: Vanguard[]
In Hamburg, Arthur and his team hijacked a train to enter the Nazi submarine base, and explained to his squad about what they were searching for. Though they managed to find a crate that contained intel inside the submarine, Kingsley and the team were apprehended by Nazi General Hermann Freisinger. During the interrogation, Kingsley challenged Freisinger into killing him, but the general decided to kill Novak by beating him to death with his chair. The group were then imprisoned above the Gestapo headquarters, and Kingsley came up with a plan to find documents on "Project Phoenix" while the team were interrogated by Jannick Richter. Arthur then tasked his team to refuse any information to Richter, and also told the German that Wade was killed on the train since Jackson had abandoned the team.
Arthur's plan also involved Wade, knowing that Jackson would return to them and play into Richter's hand, but this would cause the death of Webb in retaliation. Mourning his friend, Kingsley became more determined to escape and find intel, and telling Riggs and Polina to trust Wade since he knew of his past involvement with the 93rd Infantry. He then came up with a plan to have Riggs pretend to give information to Richter so he could break his allies out, and Arthur pretended to be angered at Lucas' "betrayal" to further make it feel convincing. The plan went into fruition, and Kingsley personally killed Richter to avenge Webb's death and gained the loyalty of his teammates, who wanted to stop Freisinger from escaping from Hamburg.
The group worked together in stopping Freisinger, and Kingsley or Polina killed the general after he spoke of being given luxury if he cooperated with the Allied Powers. Leaving Hamburg on Hermann's plane, Arthur and the team discovered the crate from the submarine, and found many documents that showed the the Germans were planning covert operations across the globe. Seeing that their job wasn't done, Arthur told Wade to fly them to Operation Aggregat to stop a secret V-2 rocket from being released.
Call of Duty: Warzone[]
In the multiplayer of Vanguard and Warzone, Kingsley is a playable character and is the leader of Task Force Sentinel, which consist of Constanze Muller and Padmavati Balan. In season four, Kingsley searched for Nazi gold alongside Lewis Howard, Anna Drake and Florence Carter and went against Butcher, Ikenna Olowe and Callum Hendry.
Quotes[]
| “ | Nazi Germany. The final push into the heart of darkness. The S.O.E. had recruited the six of us, under my command, for one reason. To retrieve files on the top secret Project Phoenix, the last grasp of the Third Reich. A coalition of Allied commandos thrown together and aimed at where our enemy was most vulnerable. This was meant to be our first and only mission... | „ |
| ~ Kingsley's opening narration. |
| “ | Your Rhineland accent. You must be from Neustdat. During the occupation, you saw French soldiers who looked like me carrying guns in your streets. Marry your women. That's what I hear when you speak German. {...} We thrashed you once. Hear those bombs? That's us, thrashing you again. | „ |
| ~ Kingsley to Hermann Freisinger. |
| “ | You lose men. That's war. Sometimes the only way to honor a fallen soldier is to finish the mission. But try remembering that while their blood stains your boots. | „ |
| ~ Kingsley's narration following being captured by Freisinger. |
| “ | If you're meant to lead, you have to learn what it's like to lose men. To have them die trusting you. And there's only one way to learn that lesson. First time I did was D-Day. | „ |
| ~ Kingsley's narration in the opening of "Operation Tonga". |
| “ | We'd lost our captain, but we'd won the day. And we'd honored the memory of all those we'd lost the only way we could. By completing the mission. You look at the soldiers under your command... And hope that they can do the difficult thing. The impossible thing. That flare told me I'd been right. This is what it means to be a leader. | „ |
| ~ Kingsley's ending narration of "Operation Tonga". |
| “ | From all the flags waving on the streets, we'd never known the Nazis were about to lose the war. But bullies are always louder when they're scared. And when they're desperate, they get stupid. Commander Hermann Freisinger had killed Novak. And he'd given us a free ride right into the lion's den. | „ |
| ~ Arthur Kingsley. |
| “ | Every person on this team was a hero in their own right, long before their file ever reached my desk. But to say they were strong personalities would be a vast understatement. Particularly when it came to Polina. | „ |
| ~ Kingsley's narration in the opening cinematic of "Stalingrad". |
| “ | Surviving Stalingrad's was no small feat. Escaping, even greater. But no one really escapes something like that. The Nazi war machine had touched all our lives. Burned away something important. I think that's what made us attractive to the S.O.E. in the first place. But for Polina... the wound was marrow-deep. She was destined to return the favor. And that had made her the deadliest member of my team. | „ |
| ~ Kingsley's narration in the ending cinematic of "Stalingrad". |
| “ | Wade had talked himself out of worse situations. If you heard him talk about Midway, you could tell he was no stranger to hyperbole. Every time Wade told the story, it was a little different. He added a wing of zeroes or another aircraft carrier to his tally. But I read the reports about what happened that day. If Wade was exaggerating, it was only by a little. | „ |
| ~ Kingsley's narration in the opening cinematic of "The Battle of Midway". |
| “ | Wade would rather have been called a hotshot than a hero. That was his contradiction. He is one of the war's greatest pilots, but he needed a team. The problem was getting him to admit it. | „ |
| ~ Kingsley's narration in the ending cinematic of "The Battle of Midway". |
| “ | When Wade was airborne, he was the most dangerous thing in the skies. But if you fly too close to the sun... Eventually, your wings will get burned. | „ |
| ~ Kingsley's narration in the opening cinematic of "Numa Numa Trail". |
| “ | The men of the 93rd changed Wade. They showed the flying daredevil from the clouds what war looked like in the dirt. Down there, he learned the only way to win was to have each other's backs. If you get past his talk, and you see his actions... You will know who Wade Jackson really is. | „ |
| ~ Kingsley's narration in the ending cinematic of "Numa Numa Trail". |
| “ | I get it. But we're not in this s--thole because of him. We're in this s--thole because some sodding Krauts think they can crack the best team I've ever worked with. Now... We need a plan to get us out of here. | „ |
| ~ Kingsley to his team. |
| “ | Stalingrad. The city that arrested the Nazi's eastern expansion. Had the city fallen, Russia would have crumbled. The Germans underestimated Russia's will to survive. They underestimated the city, and her defenders. The people looked to Polina as a symbol of hope. But she didn't want to be a hero. She wanted only vengeance. | „ |
| ~ Kingsley's narration in the opening cinematic of "Lady Nightingale". |
| “ | The infamous Lady Nightingale brought Stalingrad back from the brink. Her actions inspired the Russians to take back their city and go on the offensive. Polina changed the course of the war for the Allies and her people. With that reputation, it was only a matter of time before we found her. | „ |
| ~ Kingsley's narration of the ending cinematic of "Lady Nightingale". |
| “ | Break a leg, Lucas. | „ |
| ~ Arthur Kingsley, setting the plan on having Lucas break them out. |
| “ | Insubordinate. Churlish. No stranger to a prison cell. That's Lucas. You had to credit the S.O.E. They were very good at spotting talent in the unlikeliest of places. And Lucas had talent. He was a skilled demolitionist with an explosive temperament. And a sharp tongue. Out there in the desert, the Rats of Tobruk were like a family. Unfortunately... They never did figure out how to get along with the brass. | „ |
| ~ Kingsley's narration in the opening cinematic of "The Rats of Tobruk". |
| “ | On the coast of Italian Libya, an Australian private and a group of Rats had given Rommel a huge black eye. Their actions should have earned them medals, and maybe even a shred of respect. Hamms didn't see it that way. Their reward was some time in the brig. However, all Richter seemed to care about was Rommel and his connection to Freisinger. That fool would listen to Lucas as long as we needed him to. | „ |
| ~ Kingsley's narration in the ending cinematic of "The Rats of Tobruk". |
| “ | Lucas piled it on like a champ. He didn't have to Richter anything more than the lies that Nazi already told himself. That was the Third Reich for you. Their reality was delusion. You'd think we need a miracle for Lucas to pull this off. The thing is, he was like a magnet for that kind of luck. There's that saying about lighting striking twice... Yet Lucas had managed to find himself first Tobruk, and then at El Alamein. The world knew of an Allied victory in North Africa. But it wasn't because of British Commandos or mighty tanks. Lucas had the untold story. And Richter was eating it up. | „ |
| ~ Kingsley's narration in the opening cinematic of "The Battle of El Alamein". |
| “ | Sometimes... The only way to honor a fallen soldier is to finish the mission. But try remembering that while their blood stains your boots. That's what I told Lucas when we first met. War had taught us both that lesson. The rigid hierarchy of Allied command would look at Lucas and see only character flaws. Insubordinate. Churlish. No stranger to a prison cell. He was perfect for my team. Even if he does have a mean right hook. | „ |
| ~ Kingsley's narration in the ending cinematic of "The Battle of El Alamein". |
| “ | Lucas played his role perfectly. He had Richter distracted, and doubting everything he thought he knew. | „ |
| ~ Kingsley's narration in the opening cinematic of "The Fourth Reich". |
| “ | That's for Richard. | „ |
| ~ Kingsley stabbing Richter, mortally wounding him. |
| “ | It's over. | „ |
| ~ Kingsley to Freisinger, holding him at gunpoint. |
| “ | You're not worth it. | „ |
| ~ Kingsley killing/sparing Freisinger (player-determined). |
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The character is based on Sidney Cornell, who was a member of the 7th Parachute Battalion during World War II.
- His blood type is O-positive.
- Though his birthdate is stated to be September 27, 1915, his birthdate is different in Black Ops Cold War, being February 16, 1916.
[]
 Heroes
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Allied Powers Marine Raiders Special Operations Executive Task Force Vanguard Special Air Service Task Force 141 Loyalists FSO GIGN U.S. Armed Forces Delta Force Joint Special Operations Command Operation 40 U.S. Government Central Intelligence Agency Black Ops Vorkuta Prisoners MACV-SOG Ghosts Sentinel Task Force Winslow Accord Specialists Special Air Combat Recon Special Associated Treaty Organization United Nations Space Alliance Special Air Service Task Force 141 Urzikstan Liberation Force Chimera Armistice Die Landebahn Crew NATO Los Vaqueros JTF - Ghost Team SpecGru The Rook Safehouse Crew Rogue Black Ops United Anti-Terrorism Coalition Phantom Corps The Couteau Line Kurohana Corporation La Sous Terre Primis/Ultimis Victis Bureau of Archaic Technologies Chaos Requiem Operation Deadbolt Zombies Others | ||