Leith Harbour was reconnoitred in 1908 by Henrik Henriksen, a Falkland Islander of German-speaking Finnish heritage and was the first manager of the whaling station.

The Falklands War was precipitated in March 1982 when a group of around fifty Argentines, posing as scrap metal merchants, occupied the abandoned whaling station at Leith Harbour.

They were understood to have a commercial contract to remove scrap metal at Leith Harbour but they arrived aboard ARA Bahía Buen Suceso, a ship chartered by the Argentine Government.

32 special forces troops from Corbeta Uruguay were brought by the Argentine Navy ship Bahía Paraiso to South Georgia and landed at Leith Harbour on 25 March 1982.

Leith Harbour and the hardships endured by the whalers are the subject of "The Little Pot Stove", a song covered by Nic Jones and written by the former whaling engineer turned singer-songwriter Harry Robertson.