Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A post-War K.P.F.S.M. group of four awarded to Chief Officer O. H. B. Leek, Breconshire and Radnorshire Fire Brigade

King’s Police and Fire Services Medal, G.VI.R., 2nd issue, for Distinguished Service (Oliver H. B. Leek, Ch. Officer. Breconshire & Radnorshire Fire Brigade); Defence Medal; Coronation 1953; Fire Brigade Long Service Medal, E.II.R. (Oliver H. B. Leek Chief Officer) mounted as worn, nearly extremely fine (4) £700-900

K.P.F.S.M. London Gazette 1 January 1952.

Oliver Henry Bengough Leek was born in Bristol on 3 February 1905, and joined the Bristol Police Fire Brigade as a Constable in 1926. During the period of the Blitz he was a fire-ground officer responsible for the control of a large area of Bristol, in addition to being the reinforcing officer for Bath, Weston-super-Mare, Exeter, Plymouth, and other places in the South-west.

On 18 August 1941 he was appointed Senior Company Officer and acting Column Officer in Charge of the Sub-Division consisting of South Bristol and North Somerset, with the responsibility of organising fire defence in that area, and was subsequently given command of the strategically more important area of the centre of Bristol. His final Wartime posting was as Deputy Sub-Area Commander of Bristol, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire.

In 1947 he was promoted to Divisional Officer and transferred as Sub-Area Commander of Swansea and West Glamorgan. When the National Fire Service was returned to the control of the local authorities on 1 April 1948, he was appointed Chief Officer of the Breconshire and Radnorshire Fire Brigade, and was awarded the King’s Police and Fire Services Medal in the 1952 New Year’s Honours List. He retired in 1961, and died in August 1993.