Our founder
Group Captain Lord Cheshire of Woodhall
VC OM DSO DFC
1917 – 1992
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| Leonard Cheshire the war hero |
Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire was born on 7 September 1917.
His childhood and youth were lived at the family home of Greywalls near Oxford with his parents Geoffrey and Primrose and his younger brother Christopher. Following in his father's footsteps to study law at Oxford University, he was commissioned into the reserve of the RAF as a student. So started what was to become a legendary war career.
He served almost without interruption in Bomber Command, flying a record of one hundred bombing missions. He was the most highly decorated bomber pilot of the Second World War, and received the accolade of the Victoria Cross.
In 1943, he dropped a rank to take command of the famous
617 Squadron, the Dambusters. Leonard Cheshire Disability is proud to be the official charity partner of the Dambusters squadron in 2013, their 70th anniversary year.
Take part in our Dambusters raffle and you could follow in Leonard Cheshire's footsteps and command 617 Squadron. One lucky supporter will win a once-in-a-lifetime VIP visit to command the squadron for a day. All funds raised support our work, keeping alive Leonard Cheshire's legacy. Get full details and enter now at
command617.com.
Back as a civilian, he set up a community for ex-servicemen and women at his home Le Court in Hampshire. The scheme did not prosper but, at the beginning of 1948 and now living alone at Le Court, he agreed to look after one of the community members who was dying of cancer and had nowhere else to go. Cheshire found others coming to him for help, and so started the work which today is carried on in his name with disabled people across the globe.
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| Leonard Cheshire in 1990 |
Read more about how Leonard Cheshire Disability began.
On 5 April 1959 Leonard Cheshire married Sue Ryder, whose own international charitable work was well established. Home for them and their two children was in the Suffolk village of Cavendish, though both spent a large part of the year visiting their humanitarian projects worldwide. Leonard Cheshire's award of the Order of Merit was announced on 5 February 1981 and his elevation to the peerage on 15 June 1991.
Leonard Cheshire died from the effects of motor neurone disease on 31 July 1992.
