Malcolm George Dyer-Edwardes Leslie was born on 8 February 1902 in Kensington.

His father was Norman Leslie, 19th Earl of Rothes, a Scottish nobleman.

His mother was Noël Leslie, Countess of Rothes, who not only survived the Titanic disaster, but took the tiller of a lifeboat and helped row survivors to the RMS Carpathia.

He worked as Chairman of the National Mutual Life Assurance Society.

[5] The Rothes Chair in Preventive Ophthalmology was established at London University in his memory in 1977.