Frederick Leathers, 1st Viscount Leathers
This article needs additional citations for verification. (May 2014) |
Frederick James Leathers, 1st Viscount Leathers, PC (21 November 1883 – 19 March 1965), was a British industrialist and public servant.
Leathers was born at 47, Bromley Street,
Pacific and Orient Lines, where he came to the attention of Winston Churchill, from 1931 a director of the firm.[4]
He served as an adviser to the
Minister of War Transport in 1941 for the duration of World War II, on the appointment and strong recommendation of Churchill, who in so doing raised him to the peerage.[4]
In fact, Churchill said of him "At these meetings, (of a subsidiary company of the Peninsular and Oriental shipping lines where Churchill was a director in 1930), I gradually became aware of a very remarkable man. He presided over 30 or 40 companies...I soon perceived that Frederick Leathers was the central brain and controlling power of this combination. He knew everything and commanded absolute confidence. Year after year I watched him...I said to myself "If ever there is another war, here is a man who will play the same kind of part as the great business leaders who served under me at the Ministry of Munitions in 1917 and 1918". On 8 May 1941, I turned to him. To give him the necessary authority I created the office of Minister of War Transport". (The Grand Alliance, pub. Cassell, London, p132. 1966)
He attended the
lend-lease of American ships to Britain. He also accompanied the prime minister, Winston Churchill to the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences.[citation needed
]
He later served as
Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour
in 1943. He was further honoured when he was made Viscount Leathers, of Purfleet in the County of Essex, in 1954.
Arms
|
References
- ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 2273
- ^ Current Biography yearbook vol. 2, ed. Anna Herthe Rothe et al, H. W. Wilson Co., 1941, p. 503
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7953-0616-7.
- ^ Debrett's Peerage. 1985. p. 711.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Frederick Leathers, 1st Viscount Leathers.
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Leathers
- Newspaper clippings about Frederick Leathers, 1st Viscount Leathers in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW