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Chaplain Alan Charles Herbert LEEKE RNVR
HMS Hermes Royal Navy Date of birth: 16th April 1909 Date of death: 9th April 1942 Killed in action aged 32 Commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial Panel 76 Column 3
Alan Charles Herbert Leeke was born at Rugby in Warwickshire on the 16th of April 1909 the only son of Henry Alan Leeke MA, an engineer, and Catherine Herbert (nee Fullerton) Leeke of Southdown Cottage, Seaford in Sussex. He was educated at Lancing College where he was in Sandersons House from May 1923 to July 1927. He gained his School Certificate in 1925. He was a Sergeant in the Officer Training Corps achieving Certificate A in 1926 and was appointed as a House Captain in the same year. He went on to Clare College Cambridge in 1927 achieving a BA in 1930 and a MA in 1935. He served as the Chaplain of Clare College until 1938. He was organising Secretary for the Cambridge Mission to Delhi and was Curate of St John the Evangelist Church, Westminster until 1939. He was appointed as a Chaplain in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve on the 18th of September 1939 and moved to Hoe Mansions, 14/22 Eliot Street, Plymouth while in training. On the 9th of April 1942 the Japanese launched at attack on the British naval port of Trincomalee. The light aircraft carrier HMS Hermes was in port at the time undergoing repairs but an intercepted Japanese communication gave the ship enough time to put to sea. When the attack was over she was returning to port when she was spotted by a Japanese reconnaissance aircraft off Batticaloa. At 10.30am the tannoy sounded to announce an imminent air attack. For half an hour she was attacked by an estimated 70 enemy aircraft from the Japanese carriers Akagai, Hiryu, and Soryu, part of the Japanese First Air Fleet. Fifteen minutes into the attack the rear magazine was hit and the ship began to list to port with fires raging in the hangar areas as well as elsewhere on the ship. Japanese planes continued to drop bombs on her until she sank at 11am just to the southeast of Trincomalee. Also attacked and sunk from the same convoy were the destroyer HMAS Vampire, the corvette HMS Hollyhock along with the tankers "Athelstane" and "British Sergeant". Casualties among the crew of HMS Hermes were 307 with 590 crew being picked up by the Hospital Ship Vita and delivered to Colombo. His mother received the following telegram: - "From Admiralty. Deeply regret to inform you that your son Reverend A.C.H. Leeke Chaplain RNVR is reported missing believed killed on active service." He is commemorated on the war memorial at Seaford.

Sandersons House