30 Facts About Rea Leakey

Rea Leakey served in the Royal Tank Regiment in the Second World War, in North Africa, Italy and France.

Rea Leakey later served in Korea, in the Arab Legion, and commanded a brigade in the British Army of the Rhine in the 1960s.

Rea Leakey served as Director-General of Fighting Vehicles and finally as the commander of British troops in Malta and Libya.

Rea Leakey retired in 1966, and became Director of the Wolfson Foundation.

Rea Leakey's father had served in a Volunteer Battalion of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in the early 1900s, and with the East African Labour Corps during the First World War.

Rea Leakey was educated at boarding school in Kenya, and then at Weymouth College in England.

Rea Leakey served with the 1st Battalion in Egypt, where he helped with the invention of the Coles Universal Sun Compass.

Rea Leakey was serving on the staff of the 4th Armoured Brigade when the Second World War broke out in September 1939.

Rea Leakey rejoined his unit, renamed the 1st Royal Tank Regiment, fighting in a Mark VI tank.

Rea Leakey commanded a troop and then a squadron, and won the Military Cross at Martuba on 21 January 1941, fighting against Italian forces during Operation Compass.

Rea Leakey was awarded a Bar to the Military Cross for actions of 9 August 1941, while serving with the Australians: he is believed to be the only captain in the British Army serving as a lance corporal in the Australian army to win the MC.

Rea Leakey's exploits were later recounted by The Victor comic in the 1960s.

Rea Leakey was then sent to the Staff College in Haifa.

Rea Leakey detoured to visit his father in Kenya, and heard that his older brother Nigel Leakey had died in combat at Kolito in Abyssinia in May 1941, while serving with the King's African Rifles, for which he was later awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.

Rea Leakey learned to fly while serving as a Air Intelligence Liaison Officer with No 451 Squadron RAAF, and was then asked to join the 252nd Indian Armoured Brigade in Persia.

Rea Leakey found himself embroiled in the opening stage of Battle of Gazala, and he was nearly captured by General Rommel.

Rea Leakey then served as a turret gunner in a Grant tank, before replacing a wounded officer as GSO2 in the headquarters of the 7th Armoured Division.

Rea Leakey eventually went to Persia in July 1942, after Rommel's advance stalled near El Alamein.

Rea Leakey transferred back to the 44th Royal Tank Regiment in North Africa, and landed at Taranto after Operation Slapstick as the second-in-command of the 44th RTR, fighting up the east coast of Italy.

Rea Leakey continued to command the 5th RTR as Allied forces fought through the Netherlands, and into Germany, until VE Day in May 1945.

Rea Leakey volunteered for service in the Far East but the war ended before he arrived.

Rea Leakey was promoted to the substantive rank of captain in 1944, and was appointed to the Distinguished Service Order in 1945 for his leadership of 5th RTR.

Rea Leakey was promoted to the rank of major in 1949, and was a company commander at Sandhurst for two years, and then an instructor at the Staff College, Camberley, from 1951 to 1952.

Rea Leakey rejoined 5th RTR and spent a year in Korea from 1953 to 1954.

Rea Leakey then joined the headquarters of the 3rd Division in Cyprus.

Rea Leakey commanded the 7th Armoured Brigade in the British Army of the Rhine from 1961 to 1963.

Rea Leakey was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1967 New Year Honours.

An autobiography, Rea Leakey's Luck, was published in 1999.

Rea Leakey's father was an honorary Kikuyu tribesman known as "Morungaru".

Rea Leakey was kidnapped and brutally murdered by the Mau Mau in October 1954.