Sir George Leitch, KCB,

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(5 June 1915 – 16 March 2010) was an English civil servant. Educated at King's College, Newcastle (part of Durham University), he taught mathematics for two years before serving in the Army during the Second World War, working in operational research and ending his service with the rank of

Brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. In ...

as a deputy scientific adviser in the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

Demobilised Demobilization or demobilisation (see spelling differences) is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or because a crisis has been peacefully resolved and militar ...

in 1946, he entered the

Ministry of Supply The Ministry of Supply (MoS) was a department of the UK government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. A separate ministry, however, was responsible for aircr ...

the next year. He then worked in the War Office and the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

, where he was promoted to deputy secretary in 1965. Moving to the Ministry's Procurement Executive in 1971, he served as its Second

Permanent Secretary A permanent secretary (also known as a principal secretary) is the most senior Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil servant of a department or Ministry (government department), ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day ...

from 1972 to 1974 and then Permanent Secretary and

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from 1974 to 1975. After retiring, he was chairman of board of the aerospace manufacturer

Short Brothers Short Brothers plc, usually referred to as Shorts or Short, is an aerospace company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Shorts was founded in 1908 in London, and was the first company in the world to make production aeroplanes. It was particu ...

from 1976 to 1983.''People of Today 2002'' (London: Debrett's Peerage, 2002), p. 1170.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leitch, George 1915 births 2010 deaths English civil servants Knights Companion of the Order of the Bath Officers of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of King's College, Newcastle British Army brigadiers British Army personnel of World War II