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John F. Leeming
John Fishwick Leeming (8 January 1895 - 3 July 1965) was an English entrepreneur, businessman, early aviator, co-founder of the Lancashire Aero Club, gardener and author.
Born in Chorlton Lancashi...view moreJohn Fishwick Leeming (8 January 1895 - 3 July 1965) was an English entrepreneur, businessman, early aviator, co-founder of the Lancashire Aero Club, gardener and author.
Born in Chorlton Lancashire in 1895, the youngest son of Henry and Edith Leeming, he attended a preparatory school in Southport before the family moved to Hale in 1915. During World War I he developed an interest in aviation and began building his own gliders. He became well-known for planned landings, including on the second highest mountain in England, and co-founded Northern Air Lines (Manchester) Ltd in 1928, which operated charter and pleasure flights. His book Pilots ‘A’ Licence, published in 1935, secured his reputation as an authority on flying.
During World War II, he joined the Royal Air Force in 1939 and was commissioned a flight lieutenant and appointed to Air Marshal Owen Tudor Boyd as his aide-de-camp. He accompanied Boyd on his way to Egypt in November 1940 as the new Deputy Commander of the British Air Forces in the Middle East when, 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. Leeming was taken prisoner and to Villa Orsini close to the Sulmona PG 78, POW camp near Rome in the Abruzzo. He was later transferred to Castello di Vincigliata camp near Florence, where he successfully plotted his escape and was repatriated to England in 1943.
After the war, Leeming tells of his war-time experiences in The Natives are Friendly (1951) and Always To-Morrow (1951). His adventures in Italy also inspired him to write a number of novels, including It Always Rains in Rome (1960), A Girl Like Wigan (1961), and Arnaldo my Brother (1962).
He died in 1965 aged 69.view less