Robert Leckie (aviator)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Leckie (1890-1975) was a Canadian aviation pioneer and Air Marshal of the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1944 to 1947.

[edit] Zeppelin Killer

Robert was born in Glasgow, Scotland on April 16, 1890. He learned to fly in Toronto and joined the Royal Naval Air Service in 1915. During World War I he flew anti-submarine patrols over the North Sea. Flying a Curtiss H12 flying boat on reconnaissance, Leckie downed the German zeppelin L22 near Terschelling on May 14, 1917. Fifteen months later, during a nighttime raid on August 6, 1918, a German zeppelin formation under the command of Fürher der Luftschiffe (FdL.) (Admiral, 2nd class) Peter Strasser attacked Boston, Norwich, and the Humber estuary. Flying in a DH-4 biplane, Major Egbert Cadbury (pilot) and Leckie (gunner) took part in the interception engagement and were credited with downing Zeppelin L70 just north of Wells-next-the-Sea on the Norfolk coast. FdL. Strasser, head of the Imperial German Navy's zeppelin forces, was onboard L70 and did not survive. By the end of the war, Leckie was a Wing Commander in the Royal Air Force (RAF).

[edit] Air Commander

Between the wars, he directed flying operations for the Canadian Air Board, and oversaw the creation of mail and passenger air service throughout Canada. He later returned to the RAF, and by 1940 commanded the British air forces in the Mediterranean Sea from Malta.

As the war expanded later that year, Leckie returned to Canada to take charge of training operations in Canada for the RAF. In 1942 he transferred to the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). In 1944 he became Chief of Air Staff, and was promoted to Air Marshal. He died in Ottawa on March 31, 1975.