Vice-admiral David Leach
Senior officer in the Royal Australian Navy whose years in the top job were marred by budget cuts
VICE-ADMIRAL DAVID LEACH, who has died aged 91, was the last Chief of the Naval Staff of the Royal Australian Navy to have served in the Second World War, but his years at the top of his service, between 1982 and 1985, were years of financial retrenchment and political turmoil, during which time he served four defence ministers.
When he took over, the elderly aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne was due to be replaced by the purchase from the Royal Navy of the carrier Invincible. But the Falklands War led to Britain withdrawing its offer to sell Invincible, while the RAAF won its argument that it should be funded to be re-equipped with American jets – and the RAN lost not just Melbourne but also its fixed-wing aviation arm. Leach was left to limit the damage to morale in the Navy which he loved.
Nevertheless, he achieved major reforms in personnel and infrastructure which reflected well on his leadership. He retired with the “satisfaction that, in spite of the economic constraints imposed during the last three years, the Navy had continued to demonstrate a high standard of professionalism and integrity”.
David Willoughby Leach was born on July 7 1928 in Subiaco, Western Australia, the son of a First World War veteran. In early 1942, aged 13, he made the 1,800-mile, three-day train journey across the Nullarbor Plain to join the Royal Australian Navy.
At college he won the King’s Medal, and in 1946 he served in the British Pacific Fleet, followed by further training in the UK and service in the ships Australia, Murchison and Arunta. While in the UK he flew solo in a Tiger Moth, but his ambitions for a career as a pilot were curtailed after he showed off by flying under some telegraph wires.
Instead, in 1954-57 Leach specialised as a gunner at the gunnery school at Whale Island, Portsmouth, then became the Parade Training Officer, responsible for the Royal Navy’s ceremonial training.
In 1955 he was the course officer for a class of sub-lieutenants who decided to have some fun on their last morning parade, on April 1, by bringing a circus elephant on to the island. The duty officer, warned of the elephant’s approach by the bridge sentry, thought that his leg was being pulled and gave the order to let the pachyderm proceed. Subsequently the class marched on to the parade ground with the elephant in their midst, surmounted by a mahout dressed as a sub-lieutenant.
The well-trained beast picked up the band’s marching step nicely, but Captain “Bunjey” Rutherford, the saluting officer in command of Whale Island, was not amused.
Leach had not been party to the April Fool’s joke, but later that morning, when he took the class results to the captain, he had placed Sub-lieutenant LE Fant at the top. Rutherford was still not amused, demanding “Fant? Fant? Who’s this feller, Fant?”
When the news reached the Admiralty, the Second Sea Lord took a personal interest and called Rutherford to announce, somewhat unkindly: “This is a trunk call.”
Leach’s next appointment was as second gunnery officer in the British cruiser Superb. She was in the Persian Gulf during the Suez Crisis, when Leach was given his first command, a landing craft manned by a company of the Glorious Gloucesters.
Returning to the RAN, Leach was fleet gunnery officer in the flagship Melbourne (1961-62), before commanding the destroyer Vendetta (1964-66) at the young age of 36. Promoted to captain, he commanded the destroyer Perth (1968-69) during the Vietnam War. Perth was awarded the US meritorious unit commendation, the only Australian ship to be given this award, and Leach was appointed CBE.
Leach served as director of naval plans (1969-70), and in 1970 he was appointed LVO for his services as ceremonial officer during the Queen’s visit to Australia to commemorate Captain Cook’s bicentenary.
Next, he was naval adviser in London (1971-74), director general naval operational requirements (1975-76), and in 1977 a student at the Royal College of Defence Studies. As a rear-admiral he was Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Materiel), Flag Officer Commanding the Australian Fleet, and Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Personnel) before promotion to vice-admiral in April 1982.
In 1981 he was made an officer of the Order of Australia and in 1984 was promoted to companion of the Order.
In retirement Leach was a member of the council of the Australian War Memorial, and an alderman and then mayor of Woollahra, NSW, where he settled.
Leach married Pam Prentice in 1954; she survives him with their daughter, and a son who also served in the RAN.
Vice-admiral David Leach, born July 7 1928, died January 19 2020