Leslie Hubert Holden, MC, AFC (6 March 1895 – 18 September 1932) was an Australian fighter ace of World War I and later a commercial aviator.

2 Squadron on the Western Front, he gained the sobriquets "Lucky Les" and "the homing pigeon" after a series of incidents that saw him limping back to base in bullet-riddled aircraft.

[3] Serving as a driver first in the Middle East and then on the Western Front, his mechanical ability and sense of adventure led him to volunteer for the Australian Flying Corps (AFC) in December 1916.

[4][5] Holden was involved in the AFC's first day of combat in France; just after noon on 2 October, in the vicinity of Saint-Quentin, he and his wingman engaged a German two-seater that managed to escape.

[4] During the fog-shrouded opening day of the Battle of Cambrai on 20 November, Holden bombed and machine-gunned a German communications trench from altitudes as low as 20 or 30 feet (6.1 or 9.1 metres).

"[7] Two days later he repeated the exercise with similar consequences for his aircraft—"clear evidence of the dangers of the work and of his own good luck", as the official history put it.

[8][15] Royal Air Force policy required pilots to be rotated to home establishment for rest and instructional duties after nine to twelve months in combat.

[17] Along with many other Australian Flying Corps personnel including Colonel Watt, Major Roy King, and Captain Garnet Malley, Holden departed for Australia on 6 May aboard the troopship Kaisar-i-Hind, disembarking in Sydney on 19 June.

[22] After taking part in the Commonwealth Government's Peace Loan flights, he joined Holden's Motor Body Builders as its Sydney manager.

[23] Holden married Kathleen Packman at St Mark's Anglican Church in Darling Point on 3 June 1924; the couple had three daughters.

[26][27] Still hankering after a full-time career in flying, Holden enlisted the help of friends to purchase a de Havilland DH.61 Giant Moth in 1928.

[30] On 4 or 5 April 1929, Holden, Aero Club ground engineer F. R. Mitchell, Dr. G. R. Hamilton and wireless operator L. S. W. Stannage set out aboard Canberra.

[30] According to one newspaper article, Holden flew a total of 9000 miles (14,500 km) and was in the air for 100 hours,[31] before spotting the missing aircraft on a mud flat near the Gleneig River.

The media of the day later turned on Smith and Ulm, accusing them of staging a publicity stunt, and the Sydney Citizens' Relief Committee withheld payment of Holden's expenses.

On 18 September 1932, Holden was travelling as a passenger aboard a New England Airways DH.80 Puss Moth from Sydney to Brisbane when it crashed at Byron Bay in northern New South Wales, killing him instantly.

[36][37] A crowded memorial service for Holden and Hamilton took place at Sydney Church of England Grammar School on 20 September; they were cremated that afternoon at Rookwood Cemetery, where eighteen aircraft piloted by friends and associates of the pair overflew the chapel.

[39] Les Holden, George Hamilton, and one of their schoolmates who had also recently died, Henry Braddon, were commemorated with a memorial stained-glass window at the Sydney Church of England Grammar School chapel in 1934.