124 Facts About Leonard Cheshire

Leonard Cheshire was the youngest group captain in the Royal Air Force and one of the most highly decorated pilots of the war.

Leonard Cheshire became known for his work in conflict resolution.

Leonard Cheshire is under consideration for beatification in the Roman Catholic Church.

Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, known as Leonard, was the son of Geoffrey Chevalier Cheshire, a barrister, academic and influential writer on English law.

Leonard Cheshire was born in Hoole, Chester, where his paternal grandparents lived, but was brought up at his parents' home near Oxford.

Leonard Cheshire was educated at the Dragon School in Oxford, Stowe School where he was head of Chatham House, and Merton College, Oxford.

At school, Leonard Cheshire excelled at lawn tennis, becoming Captain and showed an aptitude for languages and an interest in reading and natural history.

Leonard Cheshire caused considerable offence by pointedly refusing to give the Nazi salute.

Leonard Cheshire entered Merton College at the University of Oxford in 1936 and joined Oxford University Air Squadron the following month.

Leonard Cheshire later said his aims at Oxford were to "drive a Bentley, dress in a Savile Row suit, in short to make pots of money without too many scruples how" yet he had no clear idea how to make money, apart from cultivating celebrity.

Leonard Cheshire chose the cavalry, but soon found the early hours and physical demands were not to his liking, and he transferred to the Oxford University Air Squadron because it involved sitting down.

On 16 November 1937 Leonard Cheshire received his commission as a pilot officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve.

Leonard Cheshire joined as a way to get out of his university finals, but his father soon put his foot down and insisted he sit them, then apply for a permanent commission under the RAF's direct entry scheme.

Leonard Cheshire made a loud joking remark at a pub about German troops having arrived in England, which was reported.

Leonard Cheshire was called in to the station commander, and was nearly sent to the infantry, but he apologised and was kept in.

On 7 April 1940 Leonard Cheshire was promoted to flying officer and in June he was posted to 102 Squadron, flying the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley.

Leonard Cheshire remarked that upon arriving at Driffield he was filled with a fear that he would not measure up to what was expected of him, but soon found himself buoyed with the sense of being part of a tradition.

Leonard Cheshire became good friends with a number of pilots there, including Hugh "Lofty" Long and Jimmy Marks.

Leonard Cheshire expected Cheshire to know the aircraft inside and out.

Leonard Cheshire's goal was to make flying the aircraft so second nature, that when the point of critical action arrived all of Cheshire's attention could be focused on the problem, as none of his concentration would be diverted by the task of flying.

Long made Leonard Cheshire spend every spare minute he had learning the machine.

Leonard Cheshire made me practice and re-practice, study and re-study, experiment and re-experiment.

Leonard Cheshire regained his senses and realised both engines were still working, and pulled the aircraft out at about 5,000 feet.

Leonard Cheshire was posted to 35 Squadron in January 1941, where he joined Jimmy Marks, "Willie" Tait and George Holden.

Leonard Cheshire was promoted to acting squadron leader on 1 March 1941, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross later that same month.

Four months after Leonard Cheshire completed his DSO mission, "Lofty" Long was killed during a mission on 13 March 1941.

Leonard Cheshire obtained a posting to the Atlantic Ferry Organisation to fly a Liberator across the Atlantic.

On 4 May 1941 Leonard Cheshire reported aboard a Norwegian steamer to begin his trip across the Atlantic.

Leonard Cheshire finally arrived in Canada to find the authorities there did not know who he was or what he was there for.

Leonard Cheshire had expected to fly a Liberator or Canadian-built Halifax back to England but he was not allowed to, as he did not have experience in navigation.

Leonard Cheshire was a firm believer that bombing German production was a war-winning strategy.

Leonard Cheshire twice flew on thousand plane raids while serving as an instructor pilot.

Leonard Cheshire always flew on the most dangerous operations, and never took the less dangerous ops to France.

Leonard Cheshire tackled the morale problem by ordering changes to the aircraft to improve the performance.

Leonard Cheshire was among the first to notice that it was very rare for a Halifax to return on three engines.

Leonard Cheshire was determined to increase the efficiency of his squadron and improve the chances of survival of its crews.

Leonard Cheshire took new crews and gave them the benefit of his experience.

Leonard Cheshire taught them what predicted flak was, he taught them what a box barrage was, by flying through it.

Leonard Cheshire was in charge of 30 to 40 aircraft and 1,800 to 2,000 men.

Leonard Cheshire's posting to Marston Moor was not to his liking.

Leonard Cheshire had been an operational pilot his whole career, and he had limited experience in RAF administrative processes.

Leonard Cheshire found himself frustrated at Marston Moor, not least of all by his adjutant, Bob Dales.

Leonard Cheshire did what he could to convey to the men being trained how what was being taught at the OCU would translate to saving lives once they began flying in earnest.

Leonard Cheshire longed to get back to operational flying but could not, as he could not ask Air Vice-Marshal Carr to reverse his promotion to Group Captain, and with such a rank no flying position was available.

Leonard Cheshire approached Bennett and asked permission to transfer to the Pathfinder Force.

Leonard Cheshire replied that at present no jobs were available.

Regardless, he was not sure if Leonard Cheshire would be suitable and a trial would be necessary.

In 1943, Leonard Cheshire published an account of his first tour of operations in his book, Bomber Pilot which tells of his posting to RAF Driffield and the story of flying his badly damaged bomber back to base.

Leonard Cheshire knew the new post would be a challenge for him.

However Leonard Cheshire found Cochrane to be very bright, and though strict, it was a strictness in the best possible sense.

An experienced pilot on the Halifax, Leonard Cheshire felt the training flying somewhat demeaning, but after his second day there he realised Cochrane had been quite right.

The mission Cochrane had recruited Leonard Cheshire for was the destruction of the German V-3 long-range guns.

Leonard Cheshire stated that, for accuracy requirements, one bomb out of fifteen dropped from 20,000 feet needed to land within twelve metres of the target.

Leonard Cheshire dismissed the idea, stating that it could not be done.

Leonard Cheshire offered that it could be achieved if attempted with a low-level marker aircraft.

Leonard Cheshire chose to drop a single, very accurate marker, and have the rest of the force bomb that.

Leonard Cheshire next moved on to identifying the target at night.

Leonard Cheshire identified the roof top of the Gnome-Rhone factory, and proceeded to make a series of low-level passes at 20 feet, hoping the workers inside would take the hint.

Leonard Cheshire then dropped a marker flare on the roof top.

Leonard Cheshire made several attempts to mark it, but could not get close enough to drop his marker on the line.

Leonard Cheshire made five more attempts on the viaduct, but was unable to get close enough to leave his marker on the railway line.

Leonard Cheshire believed the low marker aircraft should be fast and more manoeuvrable.

Harris heard what they had to say, and though Leonard Cheshire's squadron had a good track record against lightly defended targets in France, it was likely going to be another story if they were to attempt such a technique against one of the heavily defended targets in Germany.

Not pausing, Leonard Cheshire dived straight for his target building near the railway yard, dropping his marker at rooftop height.

Leonard Cheshire then made a slow, wide circle of the yard to evaluate the effect of the bombing.

True to his word, Harris allowed Leonard Cheshire to keep them.

Leonard Cheshire had lost his Mosquitos, as another squadron asserted a prior claim on them.

Leonard Cheshire had never flown without a navigator, and now he found himself in the position of having to ask for help.

Leonard Cheshire swallowed his pride and asked the squadron's navigators to help him work out his course, while the ground crew put together the Mustang.

Leonard Cheshire's crew finished the job by late afternoon, some time after the Lancasters had taken off.

The machine worked beautifully, with Leonard Cheshire arriving over the target just as the high illumination flares were being dropped.

Leonard Cheshire marked the target, and the Lancasters landed three Tallboys on it, destroying it utterly.

Leonard Cheshire stood down Shannon, Munro and McCarthy, the surviving 617 pilots from the Dams raid.

Leonard Cheshire did not witness the event as close up as anticipated due to aircraft commander James Hopkins' failure to link up with the other B-29s.

Leonard Cheshire tried to justify this by the need to keep the VIP passengers out of danger but Cheshire thought that Hopkins was "overwrought".

Leonard Cheshire had been asked to do the job by Winston Churchill, but had to report to new Prime Minister Clement Attlee, who was startled by Cheshire's insistence that the answer to peace was more research into the development of atomic energy as a means of propulsion into space.

Leonard Cheshire told Attlee that the race would be won by the efficacy of the means of delivering atom bombs and the means of protecting stockpiles from destruction.

Leonard Cheshire suggested to Attlee that thinking should move away from conventional aircraft and rockets on Earth and to launch into Space.

Shortly after this conversation, Leonard Cheshire was summoned to his final Medical board and was told he had been diagnosed with psycho-neurosis and needed a year's complete rest.

Leonard Cheshire was retired from the RAF with a disability pension on 22 January 1946, retaining his final rank of Group Captain.

Leonard Cheshire was not a naturally talented pilot, and felt he had to keep flying to keep his skills up.

Leonard Cheshire felt worrying about the dangers would only exhaust one's mind.

In contrast to Guy Gibson, Leonard Cheshire was approachable, and made it a point to know the name of every man on base, including the ground crews.

Leonard Cheshire took the time to speak with them, and contrived various methods to reach out to them.

Leonard Cheshire wanted each man to have a sense that he knew them and liked them.

Leonard Cheshire believed this was critical to the effectiveness of his squadron.

Leonard Cheshire invoked great loyalty in his men, as it was clear he was devoted to their needs and was willing to take practical steps to improve the safety and success of their missions.

Leonard Cheshire made a personal example of what was required, and relied on his example and the crews' determination not to let him down to lead them through some of the war's most difficult raids.

Leonard Cheshire was resolute when dealing with any pilot or crew member in his squadron who would not fly missions.

Leonard Cheshire was both the youngest group captain in the service and the most decorated.

At St Luke's hospital, Leonard Cheshire was free to come and go and soon had a thriving correspondence with old contacts, trying to find a purpose to replace life in the Air Force.

Leonard Cheshire decided to start a communal living experiment called 'Vade in Pacem' first at Gumley Hall in Leicestershire, and then at Le Court in Hampshire later that year - a house and estate he had bought from his aunt.

Leonard Cheshire hoped that training, prosperity and fulfilment would result from united effort and mutual support.

Leonard Cheshire saw the community as one way of continuing to work towards world peace.

At the beginning of 1948, Leonard Cheshire heard about Arthur Dykes, who had been one of Leonard Cheshire's original "VIP" community at Le Court, and was dying from cancer.

Dykes asked Leonard Cheshire to give him some land to park a caravan until he recovered, but Leonard Cheshire discovered that Dykes was terminally ill and that this diagnosis was concealed from him.

Leonard Cheshire told Dykes the real position and invited him to stay at Le Court.

Leonard Cheshire learned nursing skills and was approached to take in a second patient, a 94-year-old woman recovering from a stroke.

Leonard Cheshire was followed by others, some coming to stay and others to help.

Leonard Cheshire had identified a gap in the new National Health Service and more were to come to him for help, willing to contribute their National Insurance payments and keen to share a home with others where they could make friends and all chip in together.

The local GP and others had misgivings about the project, but as Leonard Cheshire pointed out, no matter how basic or unsatisfactory it was from a medical viewpoint, the alternative for most of the people accepted to Le Court was much worse.

Leonard Cheshire continued to live both at Le Court and after his marriage, at the Sue Ryder home in Cavendish for the rest of his life.

In 1948 his eponymous charity Leonard Cheshire, supporting people with disabilities across the world to live, learn and work as independently as they choose whatever their ability.

In 1953, Leonard Cheshire founded the Raphael Pilgrimage to enable sick and disabled Christians to travel to Lourdes on pilgrimage.

The UK branch of Ryder-Leonard Cheshire closed in 2010 and remaining funds were used to set up Target Tuberculosis and Enrych.

In 1990, towards the end of his life, Leonard Cheshire founded the UK charity the World Memorial Fund for Disaster Relief.

Leonard Cheshire was increasingly concerned with remembrance, and the effects of natural and man-made disaster on the lives of disabled people and others experiencing injustice, hence the charity's motto 'for every life lost, a life saved'.

Leonard Cheshire opened this concert by blowing a Second World War whistle.

The amphitheatre at the Arboretum is dedicated to the memory of Leonard Cheshire, and is surrounded by his favourite tree the Copper Beech.

Leonard Cheshire had been brought up a Christian in the Church of England, but had lapsed.

Dykes was a lapsed Roman Catholic refinding his faith, and it was through their late night discussions that Leonard Cheshire decided to convert.

Dykes died in August 1948 and, after completing the arrangements for his funeral, Leonard Cheshire read a book given him by a friend, One Lord, One Faith by Vernon Johnson, a High Anglican clergyman who had converted to Catholicism.

On Christmas Eve 1948, Leonard Cheshire was received into the Catholic Church.

Leonard Cheshire married fellow humanitarian Sue Ryder, a Roman Catholic convert, in a private chapel at Bombay's Roman Catholic Cathedral on 5 April 1959.

Leonard Cheshire had a particular interest in the Shroud of Turin, about which he lectured and wrote books.

Leonard Cheshire arranged with the Turin authorities for her to touch the Shroud, and later the girl and her family attributed this act of faith to her eventual recovery from the disease.

At the time of this pilgrimage, Leonard Cheshire was himself recovering from a tuberculosis infection that had destroyed one of his lungs and a few ribs; he attributed his recovery from the serious illness to the life-size replica of the shroud at the foot of his hospital bed.

Leonard Cheshire lived at King Edward VII TB Hospital in Midhurst from 1952 to 1954 while recovering, and while there set up a 'Mission Bus' fitted with tape-recorded speeches on Christ's life, and a place to view a film on the Holy Shroud.

In 1992, when Cheshire knew he was dying from motor neurone disease, his last thoughts were gathered by his spiritual advisor Father Reginald C Fuller in a book called Crossing the Finishing Line.

On 15 July 1941, Leonard Cheshire married the American actress Constance Binney, 21 years his senior.

Leonard Cheshire was a lifelong tennis fan, a member of the All England Club, and a formidable amateur player well into his seventies.

Leonard Cheshire was determined to be present at the unveiling of Arthur "Bomber" Harris's memorial on 31 May 1992, and attended against the advice of his doctors.

Leonard Cheshire said "I would have gone even if I had to be carried on a stretcher".

Leonard Cheshire died two months later at his home in the Sue Ryder Care Home at Cavendish, Suffolk, on 31 July 1992, aged 74.