Everything about Henry Leach totally explained
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry Conyers Leach,
GCB,
DL (born
18 November 1923) is a former
First Sea Lord of the
Royal Navy.
Sir Henry Leach was
First Sea Lord and
Chief of the Naval Staff between 1979 and 1982. He was the professional head of the Royal Navy at the time of the
Falklands War and was instrumental in convincing the Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher that retaking the islands was possible.
Naval career
Sir Henry Leach joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in
1937 at the age of 13, following in the footsteps of his father
John Leach. In
1941, as a
Midshipman he was assigned to
HMS Prince of Wales, however before he could take up post on board, his father, Captain
John Leach was given command. As a result he was reassigned to
HMS Mauritius. HMS
Prince of Wales was sunk by the Japanese off
Singapore, his father chosing to go down with the ship.
In December
1943, he was present as a junior officer in
HMS Duke of York at the
Battle of North Cape.
He commanded a destroyer,
HMS Dunkirk, from
1959 to
1961.
In
1970 he was given command of
HMS Albion. He strongly opposed the abolition of the daily issue of
rum at that time.
In
1971 he became Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff and in
1974 he was appointed Flag Officer First Flotilla. In
1976 he went on to be
Vice Chief of the Defence Staff and in
1977 he became
Commander-in-Chief Fleet. He was appointed
First Sea Lord in
1979.
The Falklands
On
31 March 1982 soon after the Argentine invasion of the Falklands, he brushed aside serious doubts from the
Secretary of State for Defence Sir
John Nott, and marched in to visit the Prime Minister in full uniform. He was asked if retaking the islands was possible, he replied
"Yes we can recover the islands." He then added
"and we must!" Thatcher replied
"Why?" he replied
"because if we don’t do that, in a few months we'll be living in a different country whose word will count for little!" This pleased Thatcher who then proceeded to give the order for the task force to set sail to retake the Falklands.
The Falklands campaign was successful, in no small part, thanks to Sir Henry Leach among others. He was promoted to
Admiral of the Fleet upon retirement in late
1982.
The new (2004) Fleet Headquarters building of the Royal Navy at Whale Island,
Portsmouth was named the "Sir Henry Leach Building" in his honour.
Later career
In retirement he became Chairman of the Council of the
King Edward VII Hospital.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Henry Leach'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://henry_leach.totallyexplained.com">Henry Leach Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
