ThomasEl at 20:26, 16 August 2025

2025-08-16T20:26:26Z

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[[File:Lt Col G Leachman as Bedu.jpg|thumb|right|185px|Colonel Leachman dressed as a [[Bedouin]]]]

Lieutenant-Colonel '''Gerard Evelyn Leachman''', [[Order of the Indian Empire|CIE]], [[Distinguished Service Order|DSO]] (27 July 1880, [[Petersfield]], [[Hampshire]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://search.findmypast.co.uk/results/world-records/england-and-wales-births-1837-2006?firstname=gerard%20e&lastname=%20leachman&eventyear=1880&eventyear_offset=0|title = Search Results for England & Wales Births 1837-2006}}</ref> – 12 August 1920, Iraq) was an English [[soldier]] and intelligence officer who travelled extensively in [[Arabia]].

==Career==
Leachman was commissioned a [[second lieutenant]] in the [[Royal Sussex Regiment]] on 20 January 1900, and the following month left with his battalion for service in [[South Africa]] during the [[Second Boer War]].<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=The War - Embarcation of Troops|date=12 February 1900 |page=10 |issue=36063}}</ref> He served there until the end of the war, in June 1902, and left [[Cape Town]] in the SS ''Bavarian'' in August, returning to Southampton the following month.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=The Army in South Africa - Troops returning home |date=26 August 1902 |page=4 |issue=36856}}</ref> He later served in India, but spent most of his career as a political officer in [[Mesopotamia]], where he was instrumental in pacifying warring tribes to bring stability to the new country. Leachman also made various expeditions further south into Arabia, where he contacted [[Ibn Sa'ud]] on behalf of the British government. He travelled as a naturalist of the [[Royal Geographical Society]], but was in fact a British agent.

With his dark, [[Semitic people|Semitic]] looks and skill at riding a camel, Leachman was easily able to pass as [[Bedouin]] and often travelled incognito.<ref>Omer Tarin and SD Najumddin, 'G.E Leachman and the MacGregor Memorial Medal:Revaluation of the Life and Work of an Arabian Paladin', in ''Durbar: Journal of the [[Indian Military Historical Society]]'', UK, 2 parts: Vol 25 No 3, Autumn 2008, pp. 116–125; and Vol 25, No 4, pp. 174–184</ref>

Leachman's first major expedition south into the [[Arabian Peninsula]] was in 1909, during which he was involved in a ferocious battle between the [[Anaiza]] and [[Shammar]] tribes near [[Ha'il]]. He was awarded Macgregor Memorial medal for reconnaissance in 1910.<ref>Tarin and Najumddin, Vol 25, No 4, pp. 176–179</ref> In 1912 Leachman made a second expedition with the intention of crossing the [[Rub Al Khali]], but was refused permission by Ibn Sa'ud when he reached [[Riyadh]] and instead went to [[Al-Ahsa Oasis|Hasa]]. He was the first [[British people|Briton]] to be received by Ibn Sa'ud in his home city.

In December, 1915, during the [[Siege of Kut]], the British commanding officer, [[Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend|Major General Charles Townshend]], ordered Leachman to save the British cavalry by breaking out and riding south. This he did and the cavalry were the only British unit to escape before the fall of the city to the [[Ottoman Turks|Ottomans]].

Leachman was close to [[Gertrude Bell]]'s friend [[Fahad Bey Ibn Haddal]], chief of the Amarat Bedouins and fought with the [[Muntafiq]] Bedouin federation. The Bedouin called him Njayman.

Prior to the conclusion of the war, Leachman was assigned to the [[17th Indian Division]], which was assigned the task of operating on both the left and right banks of the Tigris in an effort to advance north in order to secure as much territory from the Ottomans prior to the now inevitable surrender of the Ottoman Empire. Leachman was specifically assigned to Light Armoured Motor Brigade on the right bank of the Tigris, ostensibly with a special task to work with local tribes.<ref>Wilson, Sir Arnold. ''Mesopotamia 1917–1920: A Clash of Loyalties''. London: Oxford University Press, 1931. p. 11</ref>

==Death==
After the war, he was assigned as Political Officer for the Mosul Division within Mesopotamia, up until October, 1919.<ref>Hay, W. R., ''Two Years in Kurdistan: Experiences of a Political Officer 1918–1920''. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, LTD, 1921. P 179.</ref> He was murdered during the 1920 [[Iraqi Revolt]] by a son of Sheikh [[Dhari ibn Mahmoud]], an Arab tribal leader of the Zoba tribe in the [[Shammar]] confederation, in [[Abu Ghraib]] near [[Fallujah]] on 12 August 1920. The episode is famous in Bedouin oral lore. Leachman had visited Dhari in an effort to renegotiate repayment of advances made to him by the government and to persuade him to remain loyal to the current administration, but was shot in the back by Dhari's son and then beheaded after a verbal disagreement over a local robbery.<ref>Hay, p. 367.</ref><ref>Wilson, p. 292</ref> Leachman's death sparked an immediate outbreak of tribal uprisings on the [[Euphrates]] between [[Fallujah]] and [[Hit, Iraq|Hit]], and was responsible for [[Aylmer Haldane|General Haldane's]] advance on the same area in September 1920.<ref>Wilson, p. 293</ref> He was buried in [[Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery]].<ref>{{CWGC|id=634194|name=Gerard Evelyn Leachman}}</ref>

He was played by [[Oliver Reed]] in ''[[Al-Mas' Ala Al-Kubra]]'' (aka ''Clash of Loyalties''), a 1983 film financed by [[Saddam Hussein]], which was nominated for the Golden Prize at the 1983 Moscow International Film Festival.<ref name="IMDB - awards">{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085911/awards|title=IMDB - awards|website=[[IMDb]] |accessdate=14 February 2009}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* ''A Paladin of Arabia. The Biography of Brevet Lieut.-Colonel G. E. Leachman'', N.N.E.Bray, Unicorn Press (1936). {{ISBN|0-7103-0976-7}}
* ''Travellers in Arabia'', Eid Al Yahya, Stacey International (2006). {{ISBN|0-9552193-1-0}} (9780955219313)
* ''OC Desert; The Life of Lieutenant-Colonel Gerard Leachman'', [[H.V.F. Winstone]], Quartet (1982). {{ISBN|0-7043-2330-3}}
* Hay, W.R. ''Two Years in Kurdistan: Experiences of a Political Officer 1918–1920''. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, Ltd., 1921.
* [[Arnold Wilson|Wilson, Sir Arnold]]. ''Mesopotamia 1917-1920: A Clash of Loyalties''. London: Oxford University Press, 1931.

==External links==
* [http://cambridgeforecast.wordpress.com/2008/03/26/colonel-gerard-leachman-iraq-1920/ Colonel Gerard Leachman: Iraq 1920]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Leachman, Gerard E.}}
[[Category:1880 births]]
[[Category:1920 deaths]]
[[Category:Assassinated British military personnel]]
[[Category:Royal Sussex Regiment officers]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of the Second Boer War]]
[[Category:British military personnel killed in action]]
[[Category:English explorers]]
[[Category:English people murdered abroad]]
[[Category:Explorers of Asia]]
[[Category:Explorers of Arabia]]
[[Category:World War I spies for the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:People murdered in Iraq]]
[[Category:Recipients of the MacGregor Medal]]
[[Category:Deaths by firearm in Iraq]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Hampshire]]
[[Category:Lieutenant colonels]]

Gerard Leachman - Revision history

ThomasEl at 20:26, 16 August 2025