Oliver Leese

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Lieutenant-General Sir Oliver William Hargreaves Leese, KCB, CBE, DSO (27 October 1884 - 22 January 1978) was a British general during World War II.

Leese attended Eton College and when the First World War broke out he enlisted in the Coldstream Guards. He was wounded during the Somme offensive in 1914. After the war he remained in the army.

In 1940, during the Second World War, he was in command of the 20th Guards Brigade defending Boulogne during the Battle of France. He was then promoted to major-general and was given command of the 15th (Scottish) Division in 1941. He was also given command of the Guards Armoured Division during its formation and training. Later that year he fought in North Africa during the battles against Rommel's Afrika Korps. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general and given command of XXX Corps.

When Montgomery left the Eighth Army in January 1943 to prepare for the Allied invasion of Normandy Leese was appointed as his successor. Leese was commander of the Eighth Army at the Battle of Monte Cassino and at the Gothic Line later in 1944.

In September 1944 he was sent to Burma as the British Commander-in-Chief of Allied Land Forces, South East Asia. He was not a success in this post and was eventually relieved of his command when he tried to replace the Fourteenth Army commander William Slim, to be replaced by Slim himself.

He retired from the army in 1946 and became a noted horticulturist.

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Oliver Leese