Joseph Patrick Leavy

23/11/1923 – 24/03/1945 – aged 21

Joseph Patrick Leavy was born in Crumpsall on the 23rd November 1923. During Joseph’s time at the College, he was a prominent member of the Debating and Elocution Club and a leading athlete in the vaulting field, successfully collecting his athletic colours in 1942 as well as setting the Northern Public Schools Record and the College Vault Record. He also played as a centre half in the Second XI and, in the 1941/42 school year, was appointed Prefect and Vice-Captain of St Chad’s House. He planned to join the Mill Hill Missionaries after school, dreaming of being a Missionary Priest, but the War changed his plans.

After leaving school on 22nd July 1942, Joseph was conscripted into the RAF and sent to train at Cambridge, where he coached his fellow cadets in athletics.  After completing his course, Joseph went to Canada, where he earned his wings and a King’s Commission. Upon his return to England in June 1944, he was given an elongated temporary leave, during which he briefly joined the staff of St Bede’s to teach athletics. However, in early 1945, Joseph was recalled to the RAF and seconded to the Glider Corps. On March 24th 1945, he was sent to pilot a glider across the Rhine in front of Montgomery’s invading armies, but he was shot down and killed. Joseph was twenty-one years old.