Leopold Heath

Sir Leopold Heath
Born	18 November 1817
Died	7 May 1907
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Royal Navy
Years of service	1830 - 1877
Rank	Vice Admiral
Commands held	HMS Sans Pareil HMS Seahorse HMS Melampus HMS Arrogant HMS Dauntless HMS Cambridge East Indies Station
Battles/wars	Crimean War Expedition to Abyssinia
Awards	Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath

Vice Admiral Sir Leopold George Heath KCB (18 November 1817 – 7 May 1907) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Station.

Naval career

Heath joined the Royal Navy in 1830^[1] and was involved in the capture of Borneo in 1846.^[2] He was beachmaster during the British landings at Eupatoria during the Crimean War and then became acting Captain of HMS Sans Pareil in the Black Sea before taking personal charge of the Port of Balaclava.^[1]

Heath later commanded HMS Seahorse, HMS Melampus, HMS Arrogant, HMS Dauntless and then HMS Cambridge.^[1] He was appointed Vice-President of the Ordnance Select Committee at Woolwich in 1863 and Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Station in 1867 and the following year took charge of the naval aspects of the Expedition to Abyssinia.^[2] He served on a committee for torpedo defence in 1870 and retired in 1877.^[1]

In retirement Heath lived at Anstie Grange in Holmwood in Surrey. He became a Director of the Hand in Hand Fire & Life Insurance Society, of the Central Bank of London and of the Eastern and South African Telegraph Company.^[2] In 1897 he published Letters from the Black Sea during the Crimean War, 1854-55.^[1]

Family

In 1854 Heath married Mary Emma Marsh;^[1] they had a son (Admiral Sir Herbert Heath) and a daughter.^[3]

References