Oliver Leese

Sir Oliver Leese, 3rd Baronet
Sir Oliver Leese, commander of the British Eighth Army, at his Battle Headquarters in the Mignano area, Italy 1944.
Born	(1894-10-27)27 October 1894 London, England
Died	22 January 1978(1978-01-22) (aged 83) Llanrhaeadr, Wales
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1914–47
Rank	Lieutenant General
Unit	Coldstream Guards
Commands held	Eastern Command (1945–47) Allied Land Forces South-East Asia (1944–45) Eighth Army (1943–44) XXX Corps (1942–43) Guards Armoured Division (1941–42) 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division (1941) West Sussex County Division (1940–41) 29th Infantry Brigade (1940) 1st Battalion, Coldstream Guards (1936–38)
Battles/wars	First World War Second World War
Awards	Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Commander of the Order of the British Empire Distinguished Service Order Mentioned in Despatches (2) Commander of the Legion of Merit (United States) Légion d'Honneur (France) Croix de Guerre (France) Virtuti Militari (Poland)

Lieutenant General Sir Oliver William Hargreaves Leese, 3rd Baronet, KCB, CBE, DSO (27 October 1894 – 22 January 1978) was a senior British Army officer who saw distinguished active service during both the First and Second World Wars. During the Second World War he commanded XXX Corps in the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943, serving under General Sir Bernard Montgomery, and later commanded the Eighth Army in the Italian Campaign throughout most of 1944.

Leese was the first son of Sir William Hargreaves Leese, 2nd Baronet, a barrister, and was educated at Ludgrove and Eton. Early in World War I, he joined the British Army and was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Coldstream Guards on 15 May 1915. Leese was wounded three times, the last during the Somme offensive in 1916, an action in which he was mentioned in despatches and awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). The citation to his DSO, which was gazetted in November 1916, read: