Arthur Kingsley

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==
==Gallery==
Vanguard-Phoenix.jpg|Kingsley and the team on the Hamburg freight train headed for Berlin.
Vanguard-captured.jpg|Kingsley and the team captured by General Freisinger.
Kingsley-stops-Freisinger.jpg|Kingsley holding Freisinger at gunpoint.
Vanguard-files.jpg|Kingsley, Polina and Riggs looking through the Nazi documents.
Kingsley-BOCW.jpg|Kingsley as an operator in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.
Kingsley-Mobile.png|Kingsley in Call of Duty: Mobile.
==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.
== Navigation ==
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