David Leakey

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Lieutenant General Arundell David Leakey CMG, CBE (Born 1952) is a British military commander.

In 2004, he was appointed as commander of EUFOR Althea, the European Union peacekeeping force that replaces the NATO-led SFOR in Bosnia in December 2004, having previously served in the role of Director General of Army Training and Recruiting.

In July 1999 he was appointed Deputy Colonel Commandant of the Royal Tank Regiment.

Leakey was educated at Sherborne School, the University of Cambridge (where he read Law), and at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

He was commissioned into the Royal Tank Regiment in 1971, and has served in the UK, Northern Ireland, Germany, Bosnia and in Canada. His tours of Regimental Duty have included time in the Armoured Recce role and on tanks (Chieftain and Challenger).

He attended the Army Staff College at Camberley in 1984. His subsequent appointments were as Chief of Staff 7th Armoured Brigade (Germany), Military Assistant to the Chief of the Defence Staff and Commanding Officer of the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment.

In October 1993 he was Colonel Military Operations 3 in the MOD with responsibility for Operations Planning and Policy affecting Eastern and Western Europe, and specifically the Former Yugoslavia. During this appointment in 1995 he attended the Higher Command and Staff Course at Camberley and, later that year, was the UK Military Representative at the Bosnia peace negotiations in Dayton.

He commanded 20th Armoured Brigade based in Germany in 1996/7 during which he also deployed with his Brigade Headquarters as part of the NATO operation in Bosnia. He was Director of Military Operations in the Ministry of Defence from July 1997 - December 1999 and subsequently attended the RCDS 2000 Course, before assuming the post of Chief of Staff, Headquarters Northern Ireland in February 2001. He left Northern Ireland in December 2001 to take up the appointment of Director General Army Training and Recruiting.

He is also President of Army Squash and a Governor of the National Children's Orchestra. He is married and has two sons.

Lieutenant-General David Leakey CMG, CBE completed his term as Commander of EUFOR on December 6, 2005, and handed over command of EUFOR to Major-General Gian Marco Chiarini of the Italian Army. Lieutenant-General Leakey has subsequently taken part in a language course at the Defence School of Languages in preparation for his next role as Director-General of the European Union Military Staff in Brussels, which will be a three year assignment.