Obituaries
art, music and biographies. He particularly liked attending jazz and classical music concerts, and was an avid admirer and supporter of local artists. By way of contrast, he was a crack rifle shot and a dab hand with throwing knives. He was also a long-time member of the Motor Cycle Club, and was a formidable competitor in classic car trials and one-day sporting trials, winning many cups and trophies. Peter will be remembered for being kind, considerate and a perfect gentleman, who was held in high esteem by everyone who knew him. Brenda Betts contributed significantly to this obituary. Vincent Lee-Brown came to the College from the Prep and was in Spenser. After leaving Dulwich, he went to the Northampton Engineering College in London, which subsequently became City University. After a period as a student apprentice with Alfred Herbert Ltd, machine tool makers of Coventry, he joined the tool room of Leyland Motors Ltd to engage in tool design with the Hawker Aircraft Company for the manufacture and servicing of Hurricanes and Typhoons. He was awarded the Full Technological Certificate of the City and Guilds of London Institute (first class, with silver medal) in Machine Shop Engineering in 1944, and for more than 60 years he was a chartered manufacturing engineer and electrical engineer. As Assistant Chief Draughtsman with Kent Alloys Ltd, he supervised tool design for machining castings for Sterling, Sunderland and Mosquito fighter bombers. Later, he became a mechanical engineer in the research department of Thorn Bendix Ltd, working on War Office contracts. When funds were withdrawn and the factory closed, he founded the Precision Parts Company, which specialised in the development and manufacture of tungsten halogen lighting equipment for some thirty years. Greatly absorbed by mountaineering, Vincent led three expeditions to the Pyrenees and to Lapland in the 1950s and was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society for more than 60 years. He also founded a walking club of which he was Life President. For several years he sailed his ketch from Gosport to Cherbourg, Guernsey and the Isles of Scilly. His love of the countryside extended to growing conifers, maples and azaleas in the gardens of his homes in Kingswood and then Dunsfold, both in Surrey. With his ever supportive wife, Patricia, he shared the good fortune of a strong family bond with his daughter, two sons and seven grandchildren. His younger son, Michael (79-83), who won the top scholarship to the College in his year, now runs his own accountancy business. Just prior to their golden wedding anniversary in 2007, Vincent was elected a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He derived much pleasure from the knowledge that his mother was directly descended from John Armstrong (1722–1806), who was Vincent Lee-Brown (1933-36) 12.04.1920 – 05.04.2013
the grandfather of Lord Armstrong FRS of Cragside, a former President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Vincent will be sorely missed by all who knew him, and contributed significantly to his own obituary.
Leslie James Leggett (1935-39) 04.06.1921 – 29.11.2011
Leslie Leggett was the son of a schoolteacher and lived in Brockley. He came to the College from the Prep and was in Spenser. He was in the College shooting team in 1938-39 and also played rugby. After leaving Dulwich in 1939, he started
pre-clinical training at Guy’s Hospital Dental School in London. He qualified in 1944 and was granted a Licence in Dental Surgery by the Royal College of Dental Surgeons, England (LDS RCS Eng). He joined the RAF in the same year, serving as Dental Officer at many RAF stations across Britain. While at RAF Compton Bassett in 1946, he met Signals Officer Anne Kirby-Burt and they later married. After demobilisation in 1948, Leslie was offered a post at Liverpool University School of Dental Surgery as Lecturer in Conservative Dental Surgery. The newly- formed National Health Service created opportunities that soon brought him back to London, where he was appointed Senior Hospital Dental Officer in the newly-formed Department of Conservative Dentistry at the Eastman Dental Hospital in Gray’s Inn Road. He continued to work for the Eastman but in 1959 he purchased an obsolete dental workstation from them and also set up a surgery at the family home in Bromley. He lost his first wife, Anne, to cancer in 1963 and stoically set about bringing up his two sons with some help from family and friends. The home surgery proved a useful source of additional income and allowed Leslie to build a loyal group of regular patients who stayed with him throughout his professional life. In 1973 he was made Consultant Dental Surgeon at the Eastman, a position he held until his retirement in 1986. His retirement dinner was held at the RAF Club in Piccadilly, where, according to his department secretary, Sheila Morgan, he was the only person in her memory to receive a standing ovation. Aged 75, Leslie married Myrtle and moved to Norwich. He continued with the dental practice at home until finally hanging up the drill in 2003, aged 82. His original surgery equipment is now kept in the archives of the British Dental Association as a perfect example of post-war dental technology. He lost Myrtle, again to cancer, in 2005, and spent his remaining years in the company of his two sons, Peter and Chris, with Chris assuming the role of principal carer. He passed away in the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital on 29 November 2011, after a brief illness following a minor stroke. Leslie’s son, Peter, contributed significantly to this obituary.
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