Ernest Bosdin Leech M.D. F.R.C.P. 1875–1950
Eminent physician and lecturer who assembled a large and significant medical library relating to the history of medicine in Manchester. Third son of Sir Bosdin and Mary Leech, he was educated at Cheltenham College, Christ’s College Cambridge and Manchester University.
As well as early childhood diaries he kept a journal of his trip to Europe in 1909 and a daily record of his experiences as a medical officer in the First World War. He was an enthusiastic local and family historian who kept numerous books and folders of closely written notes, as well as retaining cashbooks, accounts and cheque stubs relating to their house on Daisy Bank Road, Victoria Park.
Mary Leech 1881–1963
Born in Jamaica where her father, Revd Heinrich Walder, was a Moravian missionary, and educated at Fulneck Girls’ School near Leeds. In 1904 she married Robert Barker and became stepmother to his daughter Grace. After becoming a widow she married Ernest Bosdin Leech in 1916.
She kept many diaries and account books which she filled with loose notes, pressed flowers and postcards, as well as letters, cards and other personal ephemera.
Ernest Bosdin Leech made diary entries almost daily throughout his life and over forty volumes are contained within the archive. They begin with a small volume written when he was a twelve-year-old pupil at Cheltenham College and go on to include an extensive diary of his activities as a medical officer in the First World War, which he arranged to have transcribed, typed and bound.
In 1909 Ernest, seeking direction for his future, left his job at Manchester Royal Infirmary and embarked on an extended tour of Europe to learn languages, make professional connections and gain medical experience. Most of his time was spent in France and Germany, and many pages are filled with his deliberations about his future career, concluding:
'But still I can talk both languages enough to understand and this is the main thing. May my trip abroad help me much in my medical career. Goodbye diary’.
At the beginning of the First World War, Ernest Leech volunteered to serve as a medical officer at the British Red Cross Hospital at Worsley Hall. Here he cared initially for wounded Belgian soldiers but soon British casualties began to arrive.
Ernest did not enjoy the work at Worsley mainly because of personality clashes with his superiors and in February 1915 he volunteered for the Royal Army Medical Corps, in which he served in France for the next three years.
At Worsley Ernest maintained an album in which wounded soldiers wrote their names or poems, and drew sketches.
Ernest Bosdin Leech began corresponding with Mary Barker (née Walder), a widow, in October 1915 whilst he was serving as medical officer in northern France. The following year, the couple were married.
Ernest and Mary wrote to each other every two or three days until February 1918, when Ernest resigned his commission and returned home. Over 600 letters survive from this time and were found carefully bundled in chronological order. Ernest’s diaries from the First World War also transcribe many of these letters, which he feared would not survive.
In 1927 Ernest bought the family’s first car, a Humber, resulting in the creation of the Diary of Miss Hermione Humber. In this book he recorded the speedometer readings each time he filled up the tank, accidents and minor bumps, services and repairs, as well as a complete record of all the tours that the family had in the car from 1927 until 1935.
Ernest Bosdin Leech was not a man to discard any unconsidered trifle. Together with his wife Mary he retained all of the household accounts, cashbooks, cheque book stubs and repair bills for their house on Daisy Bank Road, in Victoria Park.
Chadlington House was bought in 1918 and both Pauline and Ann were born in the house and lived there after the deaths of their parents. Almost nothing was thrown away and very little alterations were made. Furniture which had been bought new in the 1920s remained there until the 1980s, and every piece of paper, notebook, letter or card was carefully put to one side.
As the area changed character and many of the once-grand mansions became flats or student halls of residence, the two unmarried sisters became the frequent victims of break-ins, all of which they recorded in a special book, noting the point of entry, damage caused and items taken.
Ernest's diary from the Second World War recounts the devastation that occurred on the night of 23 December 1940, when for the second consecutive night the city suffered extensive bombing by the German Luftwaffe (click to enlarge):
Ernest Bosdin Leech inherited his obsession with family history from his uncle Daniel John. Over many years he gathered volumes of material connected with the Leech and Leach family, not only those members of his own Ashton branch, but of all other branches in England, Wales and Ireland.
In 1929 he bought a series of ledgers which he called his Yellow Books, and in these he transcribed everything he knew of the Leech family of Ashton and of any others elsewhere who were related to, or might be related to, his branch. To do this he embarked on a complicated system of lettering and numbering. The branches of the family were indicated by letters A, B, C, the individuals by numbers 1, 2, 3. The member at the branching point was designated by a double lettering, the first letter with a numeral of the parent stock, the second letter without numeral to indicate the origin of the new branch.
At first the system was orderly, but later as new branches were added and new members attached to various branches, the system went totally and rather gloriously astray (click to enlarge).
In 1908 Ernest wrote in his diary:
'After lunch went to the bookbinders and gave him the names for the outsides of the family diaries. They look very well. I am glad to see them fixed so that on my death they will not be ruthlessly thrown away. But it is a costly hobby tidying up one's ancestors and it may all be wasted if the next generation takes no interest in such things'.