Admiral Richard Henry Leigh CBE (August 12, 1870 – February 4, 1946) was a United States Navy officer who served during the late 19th and early 20th century.
Though this assignment was still considered part of his training at the United States Naval Academy, from which he had only recently graduated, it proved to be his first experience with the functions of the Navy on the seas as well as on land.
New York was soon dispatched to patrol the South Atlantic and to protect American interests in Brazil following the 1893 Brazilian Naval Mutiny.
"[2] During his time on New York Leigh visited Rio de Janeiro, Colón, various Caribbean islands, and Bluefields, Nicaragua.
Albatross traveled extensively across the North Pacific, visiting most of the Aleutian Islands, Japan, Russia, and the Kingdom of Hawaii.
[5] However, before Justin was dispatched to the Caribbean Leigh was reassigned to the yacht USS Aileen for port protection duties in New York Harbor under command of Lieutenant William Kilburn.
[2] With the Caribbean no longer experiencing active hostilities, Princeton was reassigned to the Asiatic Fleet and completed a redeployment through the Suez Canal, across the Indian Ocean to Manila.
[11] Washington made several cruises along the Pacific coast of South America before returning for refitting at the Portsmouth, New Hampshire Navy Yard in 1911.
[15][2] This would prove to be Leigh's final sea command until the end of World War I as he was transferred to the Bureau of Steam Engineering effective September 1915.
[16] With the American entrance into World War I in 1917 naval assets were deployed to European waters under Admiral Sims to counter German submarine raiders and surface threats.
Not only did he show that the American listening devices were superior to anything employed by European navies, but that submarines could be located and hunted by hydrophones.
[2] British Naval engineers had been working with this problem since the beginnings of the war, yet Leigh proved the concept practical and revolutionized anti-submarine warfare.
[20] Upon returning to the United States in March 1919, Leigh was ordered to Washington, D.C., where he was appointed Assistant Chief, Bureau of Navigation under Rear admiral Victor Blue.
He then served at the Bureau of Navigation until June 1920, when he was given a command of newly commissioned dreadnought battleship USS Tennessee at Brooklyn Navy Yard.
[2] Leigh returned to the Bureau of Navigation in June 1922 and served again as Assistant Chief until July 1924, when he was ordered for instruction to the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island.
[21] Leigh was promoted to the temporary rank of four-star Admiral on September 15, 1931 and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Battle Force stationed on Hawaii.
[22] Admiral Leigh quickly responded when a major earthquake struck Long Beach, California and surrounding areas on March 10, 1933.
By the next morning 2,000 sailors of the Pacific Fleet patrolled the streets, providing security and offering aid to stricken civilians.
[27] Admiral Leigh died on February 4, 1946, aged 75, in Long Beach, California and was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia.