Reginald Leeper

Sir Reginald Wildig Allen Leeper (25 March 1888 – 2 February 1968) was a British civil servant and diplomat. He was the founder of the British Council.^[1]

Born in Sydney, Australia, Leeper was educated at Melbourne Grammar School, Melbourne's Trinity College, and New College, Oxford.

Leeper was the son of Dr Alexander Leeper, the first Warden of Trinity College, the University of Melbourne, and his wife Adeline (née Allen).^[2] His half-sister, Valentine Leeper (1900–2001), maintained a lifelong correspondence with him.^[3]

Rex Leeper (as he was known) began his government career at the Intelligence Bureau of the Department of Information during the First World War and served briefly at the Political Intelligence Department.

He became head of Britain's Political Intelligence Department when it reformed in 1938.

He was British ambassador to the Greek government from 1943 to 1946 (in exile in Cairo until October 1944), and British ambassador to Argentina from 1946 to 1948. In his former post, he played a critical role in inter-Greek political developments of 1944, especially in support of the Greek monarchy in the person of King George II of Greece. After Greece's liberation, Leeper continued to be one of the major power brokers during his tenure, which included the early stages of the Greek Civil War.

His brother, Alexander Wigram Allen Leeper, was also a distinguished British diplomat.

References

• Poynter, John, Doubts and Certainties: A Life of Alexander Leeper, Melbourne University Press, 1997.
• Poynter, Marion, Nobody's Valentine: Letters in the Life of Valentine Alexa Leeper, 1900-2001, Miugunyah Press & Trinity College, University of Melbourne, 2008