Cecil Darley Farren Leech

Posted on November 11, 2018 by Ant Stewart

22^nd November 1892 – 2^nd March 1918. North Staffordshire Regiment (2^nd Battalion)

Cecil Darley Farren Leech was a former Manchester FC player who was killed during the First World War. Leech was born in 1892, in Eccles, and spent his early years in Pendleton before being whisked off to Oundle School in Northamptonshire. As an adult, he went into banking, working firstly for the National Provincial Bank. He then got a job with the Mercantile Bank, and moved to India. Leech also excelled at cricket and hockey.

Leech signed up with the Public School Battalion in September 1914, joining the North Staffordshires in India the following year as a Lieutenant. He was statioined in Rawal Pindi throughout the war, although in 1917 he was due for redeployment in Mesopotamia (Iraq), but on the way there he suffered severe sunstroke, forcing him back to India. On the 2^nd March 1918 he died from injuries sustained during a car accident.

Leech is remembered at the Karachi 1914-1918 War Memorial, Pakistan

SOURCES
Manchester Guardian
Oundle School
World Rugby Museum