11 Facts About John Leake

Admiral of the Fleet Sir John Leake was a Royal Navy officer and politician.

John Leake then distinguished himself when he led the convoy that broke the barricading boom at Culmore Fort thereby lifting the siege of Derry during the Williamite War in Ireland.

John Leake later returned to Gibraltar with a combined English, Dutch and Portuguese force of 35 ships and defeated Baron de Pointis at the Battle of Cabrita Point.

John Leake served under Sir Cloudesley Shovell and the Earl of Peterborough at the siege of Barcelona and was present at the capitulation of the city by French and Spanish forces.

John Leake later captured Sardinia and landed the Earl of Stanhope with forces that took the well-fortified harbour of Port Mahon on Minorca.

John Leake served as Member of Parliament for Rochester from 1708 to 1715 and as First Lord of the Admiralty from 1710 to 1712.

John Leake left the Royal Navy when the War ended in 1674 and served in merchant vessels but rejoined in 1676 and became master gunner in the second-rate HMS Neptune in 1683.

John Leake commanded HMS Eagle, by then flagship of Vice-Admiral George Rooke, in a successful attack on the French ships at the Battle of La Hogue later that month.

John Leake sailed with eight ships with orders to attack the French fishing harbours and their ships at sea at this early stage of the North American theatre of the War of the Spanish Succession.

John Leake set sail at once, bringing more supplies for the defenders who were caught in what became known as the twelfth siege of Gibraltar.

John Leake arrived with twenty ships and, in the subsequent naval engagement, three French ships were captured and two others destroyed.