However he has been rightfully criticized for his political machinations within the Air Ministry, particularly with Sholto Douglas, that led to the replacement of Hugh Dowding and Keith Park on 25 November 1940, less than a month after the end of the Battle of Britain.

He died on November 1944 while en route to Ceylon to take up the post of Air Commander-in-Chief South East Asia Command when his aircraft crashed in the French Alps killing all eight people on-board including his wife.

[5] Leigh-Mallory grew up in a large house with many servants including a butler, a valet and a footman as well as numerous maids and gardeners.

He was educated at Haileybury and at Magdalene College, Cambridge[5] where he was a member of a literary club and where he made the acquaintance of Arthur Tedder, the future Marshal of the Royal Air Force.

Promoted to group captain on 1 January 1932,[13] Leigh-Mallory received a posting to the Air Ministry in 1932 and was then assigned to the British delegation at the Disarmament Conference in Geneva[6] under the auspices of the League of Nations, where he made many contacts.

[6] He was posted to the RAF in Iraq in Christmas 1935,[6] and, having been promoted to air commodore on 1 January 1936,[14] he returned to England to be appointed commander of No.

Leigh-Mallory was critical of the tactics of Park and Sir Hugh Dowding, head of Fighter Command, believing that not enough was being done to allow wing-sized formations to operate successfully.

[5] He then worked energetically in political circles to bring about the removal of Park from command of 11 Group; the false claims for the Duxford Big Wing successes played a part in this.

It was indeed a steep learning curve for Leigh Mallory despite the fact that the Luftwaffe had made similar mistakes during the Battle of Britain and there were few other senior RAF commanders who had understanding of this.

[In the Middle East] they were still in the First World War business – they'd learned none of the deception techniques such as sending in high-level fighters and sneaking the bombers in underneath."

Keeping 75 squadrons of fighters, mainly to conduct ineffective offensive operations from Britain during 1941, was also questionable while Malta and Singapore were only defended by older, obsolete types of aircraft.

The RAF's best commanders and air-warfare tacticians were in the Mediterranean area around this time achieving greater success over Malta and North Africa than their counterparts back home.

[18] In November 1942, Leigh-Mallory replaced Sholto Douglas as head of Fighter Command[6] and was promoted to the temporary rank of air marshal on 1 December 1942.

[21] As many of these "interdiction" bombing missions took place against transport nodes, such as towns and villages, Leigh-Mallory came under political pressure to limit the effects of attacks on French civilians.

[5] A court of inquiry found that the accident was a consequence of bad weather and might have been avoided if Leigh-Mallory had not insisted that the flight proceed in such poor conditions against the advice of his aircrew.

[24] He and his wife are buried, alongside eight aircrew, in Le Rivier d'Allemont, 15 miles (24 km) east-southeast of Grenoble,[25] a short distance below the site of the air crash.

To mark the 60th anniversary of the accident and Leigh-Mallory's death, the local commune opened a small museum near the crash site, dedicated to him, in 2004.