Jack Leeming
Space consultant who helped to put Helen Sharman into orbit
JACK LEEMING, who has died aged 91, was a mathematician who spent most of his working life with the Customs & Excise, then helped found the British National Space Centre and became its director-general.
A man of warmth, wit and kindness, Leeming was known in the civil service for his encouragement of promising young staff members, and the interest he took in their progress.
He was a Commissioner of Customs & Excise, handling VAT and fraud, when in 1979 his interest in science and technology was rewarded with a move to the Department of Industry (DTI) with responsibility for space policy, the Post Office and films. Leeming did much of the spadework for the creation of the BNSC, and when it came into being in 1985 he became its director of policy and programmes and, two years later, its head.
Though he only held the post for a year, it was a difficult time. Kenneth Clarke, Leeming’s minister at the DTI, was blocking a 5 per cent increase in Britain’s contribution to the European Space Agency; the other members had agreed to pay, and questioned Britain’s commitment.
After his retirement in 1988, Leeming played a crucial role in arranging for Helen Sharman to become Britain’s first astronaut. He set up a space consultancy with his wife, Cheryl Gillan, who was elected MP for Chesham & Amersham in 1992. She became secretary of the All Party Group on Space and a board member of the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. Meanwhile, Leeming worked part-time in her constituency office.
Leeming had married Cheryl Gillan, his second wife, in 1985 as he moved from the DTI to the BNSC. In retirement he worked in her office into his eighties and joined her on the campaign trail as she became an MP, then in 1995 a minister, and Welsh Secretary from 2010 until 2012; she became Dame Cheryl in 2018.
An ardent Manchester United supporter, he once inadvertently broadcast a match commentary from the loudspeaker van while out canvassing with her.
He was also golfing captain of the Royal Automobile Club – and a founder member of “the Claret Club”, a group of RAC members who met to “sort out the world”.
Leeming and Dame Cheryl lived in a 17th century house at Amersham until 2011, when his increasing mobility problems led them to move to Epsom. The house was less than a mile from the HS2 route, and Labour demanded an inquiry into whether she had breached the Ministerial Code by selling a property whose value stood to be affected by government policy. Dame Cheryl was in fact strongly opposed to HS2.
John Coates Leeming, known as Jack, was born at Oldham on May 3 1927 to James and Harriet Leeming. From Chadderton grammar school he won a scholarship to St John’s College, Cambridge. He was senior wrangler, the highestmarked mathematician of his year; he also rowed and played football.
Graduating in 1948, he taught at Hyde Grammar School before joining Customs & Excise in 1950. After a spell as private secretary to the chairman, he moved in 1956 to the Treasury, where he spent two years controlling defence expenditure.
Seconded to the World Bank in Washington for three years in 1967, he transferred to the Civil Service Department on returning to Whitehall. In 1975 he joined the Customs & Excise as one of its Commissioners.
Jack Leeming’s first marriage, in 1949, was dissolved in 1974. He is survived by Dame Cheryl, and by two sons from that first marriage.