His older brother Nigel Leakey was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross in 1945, for his actions in Ethiopia in 1941.
His younger brother Rea Leakey survived service in the Second World War, and became a major-general in the British Army.
While working as an aircraft designer in the Second World War, a reserved occupation, he discovered the 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) long Mossdale Caverns north of Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales.
[1] He was called up for military service in 1942, the year after his brother Nigel was killed in action, and served as a paratrooper in India and Burma.
He was noted for his ability to survive with little or no protective gear, occasionally diving naked into sumps deep underground, and has been described as "seemingly oblivious to the cold".