LEATHAM, William Henry (2 child of Wm. Leatham, banker, d. 1842). b. Wakefield 6 July 1815; entered his father’s bank 1834; banker at Wakefield and Pontefract 1836, retired 1851; contested Wakefield 9 July 1852; M.P. for Wakefield 2 May 1859 by three votes, unseated on petition and writ suspended until 1862; M.P. for Wakefield 1865–8; M.P. for West riding of Yorkshire, southern division 1880–5; a Quaker but joined Church of England in 1843; purchased Hemsworth hall near Pontefract 1851; author of Poems 1840; Strafford, a tragedy 1842; Oliver Cromwell, a drama 1843; The Batuecas, also Francisco Alvarez and other poems 1844; Tales of English life and Miscellanies 2 vols. 1858. d. Carleton near Pontefract 14 Nov. 1889. Biograph, v 209–213 (1881); Colburn’s New monthly mag. vol. 168 p. 421, portrait; I.L.N. 1880 p. 41, portrait.
LEATHER, John Towlerton (1 son of James Leather, colliery proprietor, d. 1849). b. Yorkshire 30 Aug. 1804; engineer of Sheffield waterworks 1833; contractor with Mr. Waring 1839, made Chester and Crewe section of London and North Western line; sole contractor for Erewash valley line of the Midland 1847–50; constructed the dam and the siphons for the repairs of the Middle Level 1862; constructor of the Portland breakwater 1849–56 and of the Sea forts at Spithead 1861–72; made the extension of the Portsmouth dock yard costing £2,000,000, 1867–77; M.I.C.E. 23 Feb. 1836; F.S.A. 11 Feb. 1869; sheriff of Northumberland 1875. d. Leventhorpe hall near Leeds 6 June 1885. Min. of proc. of Instit. of C.E. lxxxiii 433–6 (1886).
LEATHER, John Wignall (eld. son of George Leather, M.I.C.E.). b. near Leeds 26 April 1810; entered his father’s office and was with him engaged on the Leeds water supply works 1833–51 and on the Bradford water supply 1838–57; employed on the Fen drainage 1845; engineer of Aire and Calder navigation; made Hartlepool and Stockton railway 1838–41 which included the Greatham viaduct of 92 arches; laid out Birmingham, Dudley and Wolverhampton railway 1835; retired from business 1877; M.I.C.E. 6 March 1849; author of Report to the Leeds town council on an effectual sewerage for Leeds 1845. d. De Grey lodge, Leeds 31 Jany. 1887. Min. of proc. of Instit. of C.E. lxxxix 473–9 (1887).
LEATHERLAND, John A. (son of a carpenter). b. Kettering 11 May 1812; a shoemaker, a loom weaver, a ribbon weaver 1829–37, a velvet weaver, a maker of velvet waistcoats which he sold throughout the county till 1850; local reporter to Northampton Herald 1849 and other newspapers; living in High st. Kettering in 1869; author of Psyche, a prize essay on the immateriality of the mind and the immortality of the soul. Northampton 1853; On courtesy. Essay xiii. in J. Cassell’s Social Science 1861; Essays and poems, with a brief autobiographical memoir 1862, memoir pp. 1–39. d. probably before 1877.
LEATHES, Edmund John, stage name of Edmund Donaldson (2 son of John William Donaldson, D.D., Greek scholar 1811–61). b. Bury St. Edmunds 23 March 1847; ed. Marlborough 1861–64 where he won the mile race in 4 min. 38 sec.; sheep farming in New Zealand; studied medicine in Edinb.; acted at Old Theatre royal, Dublin, April 1869 and then in Sydney, New Zealand, Honolulu, San Francisco, Nevada, New York and Boston; at Princess’s theatre, London 1 March 1873 as Gratiano in Merchant of Venice; acted James Annesley in C. Reade’s The Wandering Heir, Queen’s theatre 15 Nov. 1873; played Laertes 200 nights Lyceum 30 Oct. 1874 to 29 June 1875 and Matthew Hawker in Human Nature, Drury Lane 12 Sep. 1885; a teacher of the dramatic art and literature; wrote The actor’s wife a novel 3 vols. 1880 and An actor abroad or gossip from the recollections of an actor in Australia, New Zealand, &c. 1883; produced his blank verse play For king and country, at Gaiety 1 May 1883 and another drama The actor’s wife. d. Tenterfield, Bina gardens, South Kensington, London 6 June 1891. Illust. Sport. and Dram. News 4 May 1878 p. 149, portrait.
LE BAS, Charles Webb (son of Charles Le Bas, linen draper). b. 20 New Bond st. London 26 April 1779; ed. at Hyde abbey school near Winchester; entered Trin. coll. Camb. 1796, scholar, Craven scholar 1799 and member’s prizeman, fellow 1801–14; fourth wrangler, B.A. and chancellor’s medallist 1800; barrister L.I. 1806; ordained deacon 1809; R. of St. Paul’s, Shadwell 1811; preb. of Lincoln cath. 23 May 1812; professor of mathematics and dean in East India college, Haileybury 1813, principal 1837 to 31 Dec. 1843; the Le Bas prize at Cambridge for the best essay on an historical subject was founded in 1848 by his old pupils at cost of £1920; wrote nearly 80 articles for The British Critic 1827–38; author of Considerations on miracles 1828; Sermons on various occasions 3 vols. 1822–34; The life of Thomas Fanshaw Middleton, bishop of Calcutta 2 vols. 1831; Memoir of Henry Vincent Bailey, archdeacon of Stow 1846; Life of Wicliff 1832; Life of Cranmer 1833; Life of Jewel 1835 and Life of Laud 1836, being vols. 1, 4, 5, 11 and 13 of The Theological Library edited by H. J. Rose and W. R. Lyall. d. 74 Montpelier road, Brighton 25 Jany. 1861.
LE BLANC, Henry. b. 1776; ensign 71 foot 9 July 1792, major 12 June 1806; lieut.-col. 5 veteran battalion 5 Feb. 1807 to 1814 when battalion was reduced and he retired on full pay; major of Chelsea hospital 22 Sep. 1814 to death; colonel in the army 28 Nov. 1854; served at siege of Pondicherry and capture of Cape of Good Hope 1806; lost a leg at capture of Buenos Ayres 1807. d. Clifton Down, Bristol 13 July 1855. Particulars of the investigation at the Royal hospital, Chelsea, upon charges brought by the Major against the apothecary 1830.
LE BRETON, Anna Letitia (dau. of Charles Rochemont Aikin, surgeon). b. 4 Broad st. buildings, London 30 June 1808; edited Correspondence of W. E. Channing and Lucy Aikin 1874; author of Memoirs of Mrs. Barbauld 1874; Memories of seventy years. By One of a literary family [Mrs. Le Breton], edited by Mrs. Hubert Martin 1883. (m. 6 Aug. 1833 the succeeding). d. 6 Worsley road, Hampstead 29 Sep. 1885. Memoirs of Seventy years (1883) 3, 135 et seq.
LE BRETON, Philip Hemery (eld. son of rev. Philip Le Breton, R. of St. Saviour’s, Jersey). b. St. Saviour’s rectory, Jersey 30 Oct. 1806; ed. at Mr. Cogan’s school, Walthamstow with Benjamin Disraeli and Milner Gibson; also at Westminster and Paris; solicitor in London 1828–51; barrister I.T. 1 May 1854; revising barrister for West Surrey several years; lived at Hampstead 1851 to death; member for Hampstead of Metropolitan board of works 1 July 1859 to Nov. 1879; presented with a public testimonial including gift of £500 for his activity in preserving Hampstead Heath 1871. d. 6 Worsley road, Hampstead 6 Aug. 1884. bur. in old Hampstead churchyard. F. E. Baines’s Records of Hampstead (1890) 152, 184, 320, 362, 453–5.
LE BRETON, Sir Thomas (eld. son of Thomas Le Breton, attorney general and bailiff of Jersey). b. Colomberie, St. Helier’s, Jersey 1790; educ. at Caen, Normandy as an American under the name of Burgh 1810–12 and fought several duels; advocate of Jersey bar 8 Aug. 1812; col. of Jersey Town regt. 17 July 1820 to 1850; shot Aaron de Ste Croix in a duel 1820; attorney general 25 March 1824; knighted at St. James’s palace 12 Feb. 1847, after the visit of the Queen to Jersey in Sep. 1846; bailiff of Jersey 22 June 1848 to death. d. The Terrace, St. Helier’s, Jersey 24 Nov. 1857. The Jersey Independent 25 Nov. 1857 p. 2.