Photo of John Barham Leahy Courtesy of
Wellington College
Well, there was a real live Admiral in Budleigh
Salterton and he did have a wife. And
the chances are that the couple were friends of Joyce Dennys and her husband Dr
Tom Evans.
Engineer Rear-Admiral James Palmer Leahy CB,
OBE, had retired to live in Budleigh Salterton with his wife. According to
parish records, she was Agnes Rowan née MacAuslan, not Alice, as in Henrietta Sees It Through. She died on 21 April
1969, but in 1939 they are recorded in Kelly’s Directory as residing at Glenholme, a fine house at 24 West Hill, on the west side of
Budleigh Salterton.
A visit to St Peter’s Burial Ground on the town’s
Moor Lane will confirm that the Leahys did indeed have two sons, as you can see from the inscription on the headstone.
TO THE DEAR MEMORY OF JAMES ROWAN LEAHY BORN 4TH DECEMBER 1917 DID 19TH JULY 1931. AND OF HIS FATHER ENG. REAR ADMIRAL JAMES PALMER LEAHY, C.B. WHO DIED 11TH DEC. 1940 AGED 69 YEARS. AND OF 2ND LIEUT. JOHN BARHAM LEAHY ARGYLL & SUTHERLAND HIGHLANDERS YOUNGER SON OF ABOVE KILLED IN DEFENCE OF SINGAPORE 9TH FEB. 1942. AGED 22 YEARS
Tragically, the
elder boy died at Bristol Royal Infirmary, aged only 13, when the family was
living in East Budleigh.
Wellington College
John Barham
Leahy was born in 1920. He was educated at Wellington College in Berkshire,
entering The Stanley boarding house in 1933 at the age of 13.
John Barham Leahy as a member of his school's 1st XV in 1937 Courtesy of Wellington College
No doubt John’s parents were attracted by the
College’s military tradition; it was originally established in 1853 as
a school for the sons of soldiers killed in the Duke of Wellington’s
campaigns. And yet, as College Archivist Caroline Jones comments, 'With Wellington's strong connections to the Army, it was quite unusual for the son of a Naval officer to come to the College at all. I wonder why they chose it for him.'
John is said to have displayed all the qualities of leadership during his
time at Wellington, excelling in sports such as rugby, swimming and squash, and leaving the College as Head of his House.
Clare
College, Cambridge
After leaving at the end of the
Michaelmas term in 1937 John spent some time in France and Germany before he
went up to Clare College, Cambridge, in the October of 1938.
Having taken his degree, presumably three years later,
he was appointed to the Malayan Police, but he did not stay long. In 1939,
Straits Settlements Police Chief A. H. Dickinson had been appointed Civil
Security Officer in Malaya. He was responsible for arranging the Malayan defence
against Imperial Japanese Army threats and was also having to deal with anti-British
groups which had stepped up subversive activities.
But it seems that the colonial
authorities were ill-prepared for hostile action by the Japanese. General
Archibald Wavell’s comment, following his visit to the area in late 1941, says
it all. ‘My impressions were that the whole atmosphere in Singapore was
completely unwarlike, they did not expect a Japanese attack,’ he later wrote.
The authorities were ‘very far from being keyed up to war pitch.’
HMS
Prince of Wales sinking, after being hit by Japanese bombs and torpedoes on 10
December 1941. Also destroyed in the attack was HMS Repulse on which Peter Anstey, another serviceman with a Budleigh
connection, lost his life. His name is the first on the Budleigh 1939-45 War
Memorial.
Argyll and
Sutherland Badge
By 9 December 1941, when Imperial
Japanese forces landed in on the east coast at Kelantan and Terengganu, John
had transferred from the Malayan Police to the Argyll and Sutherland
Highlanders. The police force continued to function, but it would be used by
the Japanese as a means of oppression during the occupation.
Japanese troops take cover behind steam engines
at the Johor railway station in January 1942
The loss of Malaya and Singapore to the Japanese
has been blamed by historians on a lack of coordinated military action as well
as on poor colonial administration. ‘The behaviour of the military ever since
the retreat began has been disgraceful,’ reads an entry for 21 January 1942 in
the diary of Singapore’s Governor, Sir Shenton Thomas. ‘If Singapore falls it
will be the army’s fault; they have been incredibly inefficient.’
A group of British soldiers held prisoner in a
Singapore street by two Japanese guards.. From 'To the Kwai - and Back' by
Ronald Searle. Source: http://media.iwm.org.uk
The cartoonist Ronald Searle, in his book ‘To the Kwai - and Back', recalled
arriving at Singapore Island with the 53rd Brigade in torrential
rain on 13 January 1942, after a voyage of two and a half months. ‘Shortly
after, unfit, unacclimatized, unenthusiastic and untrained in jungle warfare,’
they were rushed to the front and, as he put it, ‘pointed at the enemy’.
However no such criticism could be levelled at the
Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, whose 2nd Battalion John had joined.
Its Commanding Officer, Brigadier Ian Stewart was one of the few British officers to realise the
need for training in jungle warfare that would be necessary in order to defeat
the Japanese in a war in Malaya. When the 2nd Argylls were thrown into the
battle in early December 1941 they were to prove one of the few effective units
the Japanese would face in their rapid advance down the peninsula, inflicting
heavy casualties in every engagement.
It is thought that the massive casualties suffered
by the Argylls came as a result of their being used as an effective buffer
against the enemy. 250 survivors from the 2nd Argylls were reformed with 210
Royal Marines following the sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse on
10 December 1941, becoming known as the Plymouth Argylls. By the time of the
surrender of Singapore on 15 February the Plymouth Argylls were reduced to 40
officers and men.
Panorama view of Kranji War Memorial in Singapore
Image credit: Banej
John Leahy was with a patrol covering the
withdrawal from Singapore when all trace of him was lost. It is thought
that he was killed on the night of the 9/10 February, 1942, although the Commonwealth
War Graves Commission lists his date of his death as 1 February. ‘He was known,’
wrote a brother officer, ‘as an officer of high character and a brave man.’
John is commemorated on the Kranji
War Memorial in Singapore and at Wellington College, as well as on the Budleigh
Salterton War Memorial.
It is intriguing to consider
whether Joyce Dennys was thinking of him and his parents James and Agnes Leahy when
she wrote that letter of 6 September 1944 in Henrietta Sees It Through.
Her account of wartime life in Budleigh Salterton has been fictionalised of
course. But she had been living in the town since 1907, and would have
been well aware of the Leahy family’s sad losses: the elder son in 1931, the
Admiral himself in 1940 and John Barham Leahy in 1942. The
depth of sadness reached in that section of her book echoes the
real-life tragic story of the Admirals’ son, one of thousands who lie in an unmarked
grave, somewhere in Malaya.
The next post is for Leading
Aircraftman William Edwin Carter (1919-42), Royal Air Force, No. 5 Air Observers School
You can read about him at
https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/12/ww2-75-12-february-1942-death-on-north.html
These ‘orphans’ are listed
on Budleigh Salterton War Memorial, but have not been identified. Their first
names, date of death and service numbers are not known. They are recorded on
the Devon Heritage website as ‘Not yet confirmed’.
If you know anything which
would help to identify them,
please contact Michael
Downes on 01395 446407.
F.E. Newcombe
F.J. Watts
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