John Catterall Leach (called Jack) was born on 1 September 1894 at Clevedon, in Somerset, the only child of Charles, a solicitor, and Emily Leach. He entered the Royal Navy as a cadet in May 1907 and joined the fleet as a midshipman in 1912. Serving in the battleship HMS Erin from 1914-18, he was granted six months seniority as a lieutenant for having “performed very good service as officer in charge of a turret” at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916. The following September he married Evelyn Lee, only daughter of Mr and Mrs Lee of Yarner, near Bovey Tracey in Devon. The couple lived at Yarner and had four sons – John, Roger, Henry and Richard – between 1918 and 1928, of whom the third became an admiral of the fleet and was Chief of the Naval Staff at the time of the Falklands conflict in 1982.

Jack was appointed a member of the Royal Victorian Order after the 1927 royal visit to Australasia in HMS Renown. Promoted captain in 1933, he commanded the cruiser HMS Cumberland from 1936-38. On 15 February 1941 he was appointed commanding officer of the newly built battleship HMS Prince of Wales and, as such, was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for the courage and coolness he displayed in action against the German battleship Bismarck on 24 May 1941. Ironically there are stories of high level initial political pressure – apparently robustly resisted by the Commander-in-Chief Home Fleet, who threatened to act as accused’s friend – to have Jack court martialled for breaking off action with the Bismarck after she had destroyed the battlecruiser HMS Hood.

Aged 47, Jack was one of three hundred and twenty-seven men lost when the Prince of Wales was abandoned and sank in the South China Sea on 10 December 1941 after attack by Japanese aircraft east of Malaya, whilst trying to intercept a Japanese invasion force.

Jack is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial, on the parish church and civic war memorials at Bovey Tracey, on his wife’s grave, Grave D3/274, in the town’s cemetery and by the local road name Leach Avenue, TQ13 9GB. The administration of his estate, valued at £11,041 15s. 8d., was granted to his widow and their son Roger.