John F. Leeming
Encyclopedia
John Fishwick Leeming was an English entrepreneur, businessman, early aviator, co-founder of the Lancashire Aero Club
, gardener and author.
, and sold his first published article at 13, and later became internationally known for his books, which sold in large numbers. Whilst at school he first saw the pioneering efforts of powered flying at Birkdale near Southport. In 1910 when John was 15 years he made his first glider and tried it on the sands there. The family moved to Hale in 1915 and in 1923 were living at Alderbank, 40 Ashley Road, Altrincham. In the spring of 1918 John (now 23 years) married Sarah Tabernor and they lived first at 38 Albert Road from 1920 to 1923 and later 23 Spring Road, Hale.
Cheshire (now Greater Manchester), as it got bigger, then the greenhouse. In 1924 he flew his fifth glider which he had built from scrap from A.V.Roe & Co at their Woodford Airfield, with friends Tom Prince and Clement Wood and known as an [LPW’ after their initials . All his later gliders could be dismantled and stored in a garage. He crashed the glider and rebuilt it with a Douglas motorbike engine installed but it was too heavy to fly and they could only trundle around the field. The aircraft was based at Alexandra Park Aerodrome just outside Manchester City Centre from early 1924 until 1925 when the group moved to Woodford Aerodrome on invitation from the Avro Aircraft Company.
in his greenhouse, the first aero club in Britain with John as first Chairman and later President. In that same year 1924, the glider was completed and taken to Alexandra Park Aerodrome Manchester where it was tow-launched into the air behind a high-powered car, frequently being damaged and repaired during its exploits. When Alexandra Park Aerodrome (Manchester) closed in August 1924, the club was invited to move to Avro's Woodford airfield. The club is the largest and oldest surviving aero club in Britain. Manchester Corporation opened a new airport at Barton in 1930. In July the same year Miss Winifred Brown of the Lancashire Aero Club won the prestigious ‘King's Cup Air Race’ in Hanworth, West of London, despite tough opposition from numerous famous pilots, flying the very latest aircraft, in front of a 30,000 crowd. World War II stopped club activities, and in September 1939, the club's aircraft were stored in Avro's hangars at Woodford. The club restarted at Barton in 1946.
(1892-1933), the Australian chief test pilot of A.V.Roe Avro
Manchester, two daring airmen decided to lift the nation's spirits by being the first aircraft to land on a mountain in Great Britain. They chose to land on Helvellyn
in the English Lake District, which is 3,117feet above sea level. They set off in his Avro Avian 585 two-seater biplane on the 22 of December. They managed to land on the stony plateau which tops the fell, witnesses by a fell walker who was visiting the area. An academic, E.R. Dodds (1893–1979), Professor of Greek at the University of Birmingham, recorded the event, signing an old bill (receipt) to that effect, before they took off again. It was quite some feat. The plane had only a 30 yard run-up to the rim overlooking Red Tarn (a lake), as they flew back to Woodford, some 90 miles away south of Manchester. Today the event is marked by a slate which reads: "The first aeroplane to land on a mountain in Great Britain did so on this spot. On December 22nd 1926 John Leeming and Bert Hinkler in an AVRO 585 Gosport landed here and after a short stay flew back to Woodford".
“Mr. John Leeming, of Northern Air Lines, Ltd., has, together with Mr. M. Morgan, a motor engineer of the Ford Motor Co., invented this new flying instructor, which will be marketed at £25. It has proved a considerable…”
Between 1926 and 1928, Leeming, using his good contacts with Sir Sefton Brancker
(U.K. Director of Civil Aviation), the Royal Aero Club
and the city leaders, orchestrated an eventually successful campaign for Manchester to construct the UK's first municipal aerodrome. Manchester Corporation opened Barton Aerodrome in 1928 but it proved to be unsuitable for large aircraft. John, an authority on flying, (his book ‘Pilots ‘A’ Licence’ published in 1935), was asked to find an new airport location by Manchester Corporation. He recommended the Ringway site, which was initially rejected, but eventually they opened the aerodrome in 1938.
as his aide-de-camp. John accompanied Boyd on his way to Egypt, in November 1940 as the new Deputy Commander of the British Air Forces in the Middle East. En-route for Malta, the Wellington bomber in which Boyd and his staff were passengers was forced down over enemy-controlled Sicily by a group of Italian fighters . They destroyed confidential papers by setting the aircraft on fire, which included some £250,000 in currency, (although some was secretly hidden for possible escape). John was taken prisoner and to Villa Orsini close to the Sulmona PG 78, POW camp near Rome in the Abruzzo. 'He organised and ran the house, mess and batmen, and looked after us very well'. 'Leeming became one of my great friends in captivity. He had left his business at the beginning of the war to join the RAF., having been for years a skilled amateur pilot'. He later was transferred to Castello di Vincigliata
camp near Florence, where he was to hatch his plan for escape. He took inspiration from a book published in 1920, ‘The Road to En-Dor?’ in which tells the true story of how a couple of British officers’ attained freedom from a Turkish prison camp in WW1 through an extremely elaborate pretence of mental illness .
wrote ‘Leeming gave up running the mess in December 1941, after we had been in Florence
for three months to devote himself to the plot’. ‘His character interested me. I place him as an extremely shrewd man, very persistent and determined, but pleasant to deal with, with a most kindly nature and a flair for getting on with nearly anyone. But he delighted to appear to others as simple and easily overcome by circumstances, a pose which he developed so successfully that he managed to get himself repatriated as a very bad nervous breakdown case. I must say he worked hard for months on this astounding plot. He succeeded so well that the international Medical board, with Swiss and Italian doctors, unhesitatingly accepted his case for early repatriation’(in April 1943) . ‘However, he reached England and returned to duty. We used to spend many hours on the battlements of Castello di Vincigliata discussing [my] book, how to be an author and many other matters’. Leeming was influential in the escape plans, suggesting using the castle well system camouflaging and coding secret communications to MI9
. He was repatriated from Lisbon on the British hospital ship HMHS Newfoundland
(Furness Withy Line 6,791 tons). As he describes in his book, 'In the late afternoon, of 8 April 1943, we went aboard the British hospital ship, which was lying at the quay ready to sail for England. I walked quickly up the gangway, and as I felt my two feet touch the ship's deck I looked up - I suppose I am too sentimental - at the flag flying from the masthead. "Done it!" I said aloud.' ...'we docked at Avonmouth early in the morning of April 23 1943. The sky was grey, and it was raining.'
Lancashire Aero Club
The Lancashire Aero Club is the oldest established Flying Club in the United Kingdom.- Early history :* Late 1922: The club was formed by John F. Leeming and a group of friends who had started to build a glider in Leeming's garage at his home in Bowdon near Altrincham Cheshire...
, gardener and author.
Early life and family
John was born in Chorlton Lancashire in 1895, the youngest son of Henry and Edith Leeming. He had an older brother Henry (born 1886) and sister Jessie (born 1888). The 1901 census records the family living in 7 Demesne Road, Withington, together with Lucy Clifton (governess) and Florence Clark (servant, domestic) . John’s father Henry was an employer in a Silk & Cotton Manufacturing & Oil Merchant business together with his older brother John H Leeming. John was sent to a preparatory school in SouthportSouthport
Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. During the 2001 census Southport was recorded as having a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England...
, and sold his first published article at 13, and later became internationally known for his books, which sold in large numbers. Whilst at school he first saw the pioneering efforts of powered flying at Birkdale near Southport. In 1910 when John was 15 years he made his first glider and tried it on the sands there. The family moved to Hale in 1915 and in 1923 were living at Alderbank, 40 Ashley Road, Altrincham. In the spring of 1918 John (now 23 years) married Sarah Tabernor and they lived first at 38 Albert Road from 1920 to 1923 and later 23 Spring Road, Hale.
Aviation interests
With the upsurge of aviation during the First World War, John built his next glider in 1921 in his parents’ cellar, later moved to their garage at BowdonBowdon
Bowdon may refer to:United States* Bowdon, Georgia* Bowdon, North DakotaUnited Kingdom* Bowdon, Greater Manchester...
Cheshire (now Greater Manchester), as it got bigger, then the greenhouse. In 1924 he flew his fifth glider which he had built from scrap from A.V.Roe & Co at their Woodford Airfield, with friends Tom Prince and Clement Wood and known as an [LPW’ after their initials . All his later gliders could be dismantled and stored in a garage. He crashed the glider and rebuilt it with a Douglas motorbike engine installed but it was too heavy to fly and they could only trundle around the field. The aircraft was based at Alexandra Park Aerodrome just outside Manchester City Centre from early 1924 until 1925 when the group moved to Woodford Aerodrome on invitation from the Avro Aircraft Company.
The Lancashire Aero Club
John and nine friends formed the Lancashire Aero ClubLancashire Aero Club
The Lancashire Aero Club is the oldest established Flying Club in the United Kingdom.- Early history :* Late 1922: The club was formed by John F. Leeming and a group of friends who had started to build a glider in Leeming's garage at his home in Bowdon near Altrincham Cheshire...
in his greenhouse, the first aero club in Britain with John as first Chairman and later President. In that same year 1924, the glider was completed and taken to Alexandra Park Aerodrome Manchester where it was tow-launched into the air behind a high-powered car, frequently being damaged and repaired during its exploits. When Alexandra Park Aerodrome (Manchester) closed in August 1924, the club was invited to move to Avro's Woodford airfield. The club is the largest and oldest surviving aero club in Britain. Manchester Corporation opened a new airport at Barton in 1930. In July the same year Miss Winifred Brown of the Lancashire Aero Club won the prestigious ‘King's Cup Air Race’ in Hanworth, West of London, despite tough opposition from numerous famous pilots, flying the very latest aircraft, in front of a 30,000 crowd. World War II stopped club activities, and in September 1939, the club's aircraft were stored in Avro's hangars at Woodford. The club restarted at Barton in 1946.
Landing on a mountain
John had become famous for landing on the Chester Road near The Swan Inn in the 1920s to refuel at a petrol station and for a planned landing on the second highest mountain in England. In 1926 John Leeming, chairman of Lancashire aero club and Bert HinklerBert Hinkler
Herbert John Louis Hinkler AFC DSM , better known as Bert Hinkler, was a pioneer Australian aviator and inventor. He designed and built early aircraft before being the first person to fly solo from England to Australia, and the first person to fly solo across the Southern Atlantic Ocean...
(1892-1933), the Australian chief test pilot of A.V.Roe Avro
Avro
Avro was a British aircraft manufacturer, with numerous landmark designs such as the Avro 504 trainer in the First World War, the Avro Lancaster, one of the pre-eminent bombers of the Second World War, and the delta wing Avro Vulcan, a stalwart of the Cold War.-Early history:One of the world's...
Manchester, two daring airmen decided to lift the nation's spirits by being the first aircraft to land on a mountain in Great Britain. They chose to land on Helvellyn
Helvellyn
Helvellyn is a mountain in the English Lake District, the apex of the Eastern Fells. At above sea level, it is the third highest peak in both the Lake District and England...
in the English Lake District, which is 3,117feet above sea level. They set off in his Avro Avian 585 two-seater biplane on the 22 of December. They managed to land on the stony plateau which tops the fell, witnesses by a fell walker who was visiting the area. An academic, E.R. Dodds (1893–1979), Professor of Greek at the University of Birmingham, recorded the event, signing an old bill (receipt) to that effect, before they took off again. It was quite some feat. The plane had only a 30 yard run-up to the rim overlooking Red Tarn (a lake), as they flew back to Woodford, some 90 miles away south of Manchester. Today the event is marked by a slate which reads: "The first aeroplane to land on a mountain in Great Britain did so on this spot. On December 22nd 1926 John Leeming and Bert Hinkler in an AVRO 585 Gosport landed here and after a short stay flew back to Woodford".
Northern Air Lines (Manchester) Ltd
In 1928 he co-founded Northern Air Lines (Manchester) Ltd together with Mr. F. J. V. Holmes, acting as managers for the Manchester Corporation. They operated charter and pleasure flights from Manchester's early airfield at Barton, who based several Avro 504s and other types for training, club and charter flights. They had a two-seater De Havilland DH.60 Moths available for charter at one shilling per mile. Leeming was good at securing publicity for his airline, as ‘Flight magazine’ reported frequently at the time:- “Northern Airlines, Ltd., have recently acquired a D.H.50A, to carry four passengers and pilot, for use in connection with their air taxi work from Barton Aerodrome, Manchester. This machine was christened The Lancastrian by Alderman Davy, chairman of the Manchester Aerodrome Special Committee, on November 13, and is their first "enclosed " machine. Northern Air Lines are carrying out a considerable amount of air taxi work, and their rates are about the cheapest of any in the country for passenger transport, working out at 6d. per mile per person.”
- “…negotiations are in progress between Imperial Airways and the Northern Air Transport Company of Manchester, for ^the inauguration of a passenger air service between London and Manchester. It is proposed to connect up at Croydon with the Imperial Airways”…
“Mr. John Leeming, of Northern Air Lines, Ltd., has, together with Mr. M. Morgan, a motor engineer of the Ford Motor Co., invented this new flying instructor, which will be marketed at £25. It has proved a considerable…”
Between 1926 and 1928, Leeming, using his good contacts with Sir Sefton Brancker
Sefton Brancker
Air Vice-Marshal Sir William Sefton Brancker KCB AFC , commonly known as Sir Sefton Brancker, was a pioneer in British civil and military aviation.-Early life:...
(U.K. Director of Civil Aviation), the Royal Aero Club
Royal Aero Club
The Royal Aero Club is the national co-ordinating body for Air Sport in the United Kingdom.The Aero Club was founded in 1901 by Frank Hedges Butler, his daughter Vera and the Hon Charles Rolls , partly inspired by the Aero Club of France...
and the city leaders, orchestrated an eventually successful campaign for Manchester to construct the UK's first municipal aerodrome. Manchester Corporation opened Barton Aerodrome in 1928 but it proved to be unsuitable for large aircraft. John, an authority on flying, (his book ‘Pilots ‘A’ Licence’ published in 1935), was asked to find an new airport location by Manchester Corporation. He recommended the Ringway site, which was initially rejected, but eventually they opened the aerodrome in 1938.
House and garden
In the early 1930s he built Owlpen, York Drive, Bowdon where he developed a two-acre garden, all up the left hand side of York Drive and Theobald Road. At the end of the plot near to the Lady of the Vale Convent he spent the whole of the 1930s developing the garden and built The Barn out of reclaimed handmade bricks and old oak beams and with a Priest’s Hole . During this time he became an expert on delphiniums and wrote ‘The Book of the Delphinium’ (1932) and ‘The Garden Grows’ (1935) on the building of the garden. He bred pedigree pigs and had an interest in bee-keeping. In 1936 he created ‘Claudius the Bee’ for the Manchester Evening News for which Walt Disney bought the film rights. In that same year he wrote ‘Airdays’, based on his experiences as a pioneer of gliding and light-aeroplane flying in Great Britain. The house itself named ‘The Badgers’, in Theobald Road Bowdon, was built after the war in 1948. He is said to have helped fund the neighbouring Bollingworth House given by Fanny Baxter to establish Our Lady of the Vale Convent on condition that he reserved the right to use an entrance from Theobald Road. His wife Sarah lived there for the last five years of her life .RAF and World War II
John joined the Royal Air Force in 1939 and was commissioned a Flight-Lieutenant and appointed to Air Marshal Owen Tudor BoydOwen Tudor Boyd
Air Marshal Owen Tudor Boyd CB, OBE, MC, AFC was an officer in the British Royal Flying Corps during most of World War I...
as his aide-de-camp. John accompanied Boyd on his way to Egypt, in November 1940 as the new Deputy Commander of the British Air Forces in the Middle East. En-route for Malta, the Wellington bomber in which Boyd and his staff were passengers was forced down over enemy-controlled Sicily by a group of Italian fighters . They destroyed confidential papers by setting the aircraft on fire, which included some £250,000 in currency, (although some was secretly hidden for possible escape). John was taken prisoner and to Villa Orsini close to the Sulmona PG 78, POW camp near Rome in the Abruzzo. 'He organised and ran the house, mess and batmen, and looked after us very well'. 'Leeming became one of my great friends in captivity. He had left his business at the beginning of the war to join the RAF., having been for years a skilled amateur pilot'. He later was transferred to Castello di Vincigliata
Vincigliata
Vincigliata Castle is a medieval castle which stands on a rocky hill to the east of Fiesole in the Italian region of Tuscany. In the mid-nineteenth century the building, which had fallen into a ruinous state, was acquired by the Englishman John Temple-Leader and entirely reconstructed in the...
camp near Florence, where he was to hatch his plan for escape. He took inspiration from a book published in 1920, ‘The Road to En-Dor?’ in which tells the true story of how a couple of British officers’ attained freedom from a Turkish prison camp in WW1 through an extremely elaborate pretence of mental illness .
Prisoner of war and escape
As Lieutenant General Sir Philip NeamePhilip Neame
Lieutenant General Sir Philip Neame VC, KBE, CB, DSO, KStJ was a British Army officer and recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces...
wrote ‘Leeming gave up running the mess in December 1941, after we had been in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
for three months to devote himself to the plot’. ‘His character interested me. I place him as an extremely shrewd man, very persistent and determined, but pleasant to deal with, with a most kindly nature and a flair for getting on with nearly anyone. But he delighted to appear to others as simple and easily overcome by circumstances, a pose which he developed so successfully that he managed to get himself repatriated as a very bad nervous breakdown case. I must say he worked hard for months on this astounding plot. He succeeded so well that the international Medical board, with Swiss and Italian doctors, unhesitatingly accepted his case for early repatriation’(in April 1943) . ‘However, he reached England and returned to duty. We used to spend many hours on the battlements of Castello di Vincigliata discussing [my] book, how to be an author and many other matters’. Leeming was influential in the escape plans, suggesting using the castle well system camouflaging and coding secret communications to MI9
MI9
MI9, the British Military Intelligence Section 9, was a department of the British Directorate of Military Intelligence, part of the War Office...
. He was repatriated from Lisbon on the British hospital ship HMHS Newfoundland
HMHS Newfoundland
HMHS Newfoundland was a British hospital ship. She served during the Second World War and was sunk in an air attack in the Mediterranean.-Career:...
(Furness Withy Line 6,791 tons). As he describes in his book, 'In the late afternoon, of 8 April 1943, we went aboard the British hospital ship, which was lying at the quay ready to sail for England. I walked quickly up the gangway, and as I felt my two feet touch the ship's deck I looked up - I suppose I am too sentimental - at the flag flying from the masthead. "Done it!" I said aloud.' ...'we docked at Avonmouth early in the morning of April 23 1943. The sky was grey, and it was raining.'
Post war
After the war he wrote about his repatriated in April 1943 by feigning paranoia in ‘The Natives are Friendly’ (1951). He also told of his experiences as a prisoner of the Italians during the Second World War in ‘Always To-Morrow’ (1951). His war-time adventures in Italy inspired him to write some novels like, ‘It always rains in Rome’ (1960), ‘A Girl like Wigan’ (1961), ‘and ‘Arnaldo my Brother’(1962). Leeming described himself as 'a reluctant engineer', but retired as the managing director of a Broadheath firm, a suburb of Altrincham near Manchester, England which, amongst other feats, made money by extracting oil from rags and then selling the discarded material for further use. He died in 1965 aged 69.Books by John F Leeming
Many books translated into French, Italian, German, Danish, Finnish and Dutch- The Book of the Delphinium, 1932, 76 pages, Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons Ltd, London, several illustrations
- Pilots ‘A’ Licence, 1935, Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons Ltd, London
- The Garden Grows: a Story, 1935, George G Harrap & Co., London
- Manchester & Aviation, 1935 ?
- Airdays, 1936, George G Harrap &Co., 301 pages, some b/w photos, (author's experiences as a pioneer of gliding and light-aeroplane flying in Great Britain)
- Claudius the Bee, 1936, George G Harrap & Co., London, 128 pages, Illustrated by Richard B.Ogle. 128p ISBN 0245535845 (also in French ('Jacky au pays des abeilles'), Dutch, German ('Claudius der Hummelkönig'))
- Thanks to Claudius, 1937, George G Harrap & Co Ltd,157 pages (also in French)
- The Natives are Friendly, 1951, E. P.Dutton & Company, New York, 1951, pages 195-222, (PoW, World War II experiences)
- Always To-Morrow, 1951, George G Harrap & Co. Ltd, London, 188pages, Illustrated with photographs and maps, (Tells of the authors' experiences as a prisoner of the Italians during the Second World War)
- A Girl Like Scranton (a novel) 1961, Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, New York
- A Girl like Wigan, (a novel) 1961, George G Harrap & Co (exotic adventure across Europe)
- It always rains in Rome, (a novel), 1960, Avon Books, (A hilarious account of what happens at the end of the war when the townspeople of Fontana d'Amore discover that their 14th century bridge is about to be blown up by overzealous liberators on the one hand and a retreating enemy on the other) (also in German ('Die Brücke von Fontana d'Amore'), Italian, Dutch, Danish)
- Arnaldo my Brother, 1962, (a novel) 1962, Harrap, UK, (using his experiences at Villa Orsini and Castello di Vincigliata) (also in German 'Mein Bruder Arnaldo')
See also
- LPW Glider
- VincigliataVincigliataVincigliata Castle is a medieval castle which stands on a rocky hill to the east of Fiesole in the Italian region of Tuscany. In the mid-nineteenth century the building, which had fallen into a ruinous state, was acquired by the Englishman John Temple-Leader and entirely reconstructed in the...
- Lancashire Aero ClubLancashire Aero ClubThe Lancashire Aero Club is the oldest established Flying Club in the United Kingdom.- Early history :* Late 1922: The club was formed by John F. Leeming and a group of friends who had started to build a glider in Leeming's garage at his home in Bowdon near Altrincham Cheshire...
- HMHS NewfoundlandHMHS NewfoundlandHMHS Newfoundland was a British hospital ship. She served during the Second World War and was sunk in an air attack in the Mediterranean.-Career:...
- HelvellynHelvellynHelvellyn is a mountain in the English Lake District, the apex of the Eastern Fells. At above sea level, it is the third highest peak in both the Lake District and England...