Thomas Leigh Gatch (August 9, 1891 – December 16, 1954) was an American naval officer and attorney in the 20th century.

[1] Gatch then went back to active duty aboard a ship, before teaching for three years at the Naval Academy.

He was, correctly or incorrectly, blamed for a number of incidents involving his command; the grounding of his ship in Tonga in mid-1942, his collision with the destroyer Mahan in late 1942, and the inclusion in his crew of a 12-year-old boy - Calvin Graham - who was wounded during the Guadalcanal campaign.

Gatch's actions during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal included a fateful decision to initially engage the Japanese battleship Kirishima with his secondary battery only.

[2] His son attended the United States Military Academy,[2] and disappeared in 1974 whilst attempting the first ballon crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, in the Light Heart.

[1] He died on December 16, 1954, in San Diego, California, and is buried there at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.