Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, Baron Cheshire (7 September 1917 – 31 July 1992) was a British Royal Air Force pilot, officer and philanthropist.

Cheshire fought in the Second World War. Among the decorations Cheshire received as a pilot was the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He was the youngest group captain in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and one of the most highly decorated pilots of the war.

After the war he founded a nursing home that grew into the charity Leonard Cheshire Disability. He became known for his work in conflict resolution. In 1991 he was created a life peer in recognition of his charitable work. He is under consideration for beatification in the Roman Catholic Church.

Early life

thumb|left|A blue plaque marks the house in which he was born in Chester, which at the time was a nursing home for expectant mothers.

Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, known as Leonard, was the son of Geoffrey Chevalier Cheshire, a barrister, academic and influential writer on English law. His mother, Primrose Barstow, was from a Scottish Army family and named Leonard after her brother, who died fighting in Kūt in early 1917. Leonard had one younger brother, Christopher Cheshire, also a wartime bomber pilot. Cheshire was born in Hoole, Chester, where his paternal grandparents lived, but was brought up at his parents' home near Oxford. Cheshire was educated at the Dragon School in Oxford, Stowe School where he was head of Chatham House, and Merton College, Oxford.

At Stowe he was taught English by the writer T. H. White, but he was adamant in later years that he never flew with him. At school, Leonard excelled at lawn tennis, becoming Captain and showed an aptitude for languages and an interest in reading and natural history. At the end of his final Easter term 1936, his father arranged for him a stay in Germany with the family of Ludwig von Reuter in Potsdam and while there, witnessed an Adolf Hitler rally. Cheshire caused considerable offence by pointedly refusing to give the Nazi salute. Most of his time was spent with von Reuter's three sons, cycling, swimming and visiting Berlin and other cities. An early love of motorcar racing was fostered by trips to the Nürburgring and he entered a local tennis tournament, which he nearly won.

He entered Merton College at the University of Oxford in 1936 and joined Oxford University Air Squadron the following month. His closest university friends were Jack Randle and Peter Higgs who both followed him into war; Jack was awarded the VC posthumously in 1944 for bravery in the Battle of Kohima that year, and Peter was the first RAF fighter pilot to be lost in combat during the Battle of Britain.

At university he became a typical student of the time, taking part in pranks and displaying a knack for getting himself in the newspapers, or "creating a sensation" as Leonard called it. On one occasion at Oxford he was bet half a pint of beer with landlord of the Chequers pub Jig Holloway, that he could not walk to Paris with no more than a few pennies in his pocket; he won his bet – getting to Paris on foot by doing odd jobs and hitchhiking, eventually giving a press conference on arrival and earning enough money to travel back in first class. A local newspaper headline "Undergraduate Astonished that His Car Could Do 40 m.p.h." was the result of a speeding charge earned in Peter Higgs' car, which in mitigation Cheshire had said was over 2 years old and never known to go above 30. Leonard later said his aims at Oxford were to "drive a Bentley, dress in a Savile Row suit, in short to make pots of money without too many scruples how" yet he had no clear idea how to make money, apart from cultivating celebrity. Fred Astaire was an inspiration; Leonard even took tap dancing lessons in the hope of emulating him and modelled his hair and habit of using a cigarette holder on The Saint. As a young man, his friends later described him as having a personality of many layers, self-sufficient yet full of nervous energy.

Academically he was thought intelligent but not wildly keen on his subject, jurisprudence. His tutor F. H. Lawson said he "kept up quite well ... He wasn't the pure intellectual type. I was always satisfied with his work because he was 'a trier' – without breaking his neck". During his university years, Cheshire was required to participate in one of the service clubs. He chose the cavalry, but soon found the early hours and physical demands were not to his liking, and he transferred to the Oxford University Air Squadron because it involved sitting down. There he learned his basic piloting skills. Cheshire graduated in 1939 with a second-class degree.

Military career

Early training

On 16 November 1937 Cheshire received his commission as a pilot officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. He joined as a way to get out of his university finals, but his father soon put his foot down and insisted he sit them, then apply for a permanent commission under the RAF's direct entry scheme. On 7 October 1939 he received his permanent commission with the RAF. In selecting his preference Cheshire listed 1) Fighter Command 2) Light Bomber Force and 3) Army Cooperation force. To his disappointment, he was assigned to Bomber Command, and sent for training at RAF Hullavington, and then to RAF Abingdon. It was here that his career in the RAF was nearly ended before it even got started. Cheshire made a loud joking remark at a pub about German troops having arrived in England, which was reported. He was called in to the station commander, and was nearly sent to the infantry, but he apologised and was kept in. 102 Squadron was in 4 Group of Bomber Command, and shared the airfield at RAF Driffield with 77 Squadron. Cheshire remarked that upon arriving at Driffield he was filled with a fear that he would not measure up to what was expected of him, but soon found himself buoyed with the sense of being part of a tradition.

Long knew every man supporting the aircraft, both in his flight crew and his ground crew, and the concerns and hardships each man faced.

Completing his first tour of operations in January 1941, Cheshire immediately volunteered for a second tour.

35 Squadron

thumb|upright=1.3|Cheshire with air crew and ground crew while at 35 Squadron

Cheshire was posted to 35 Squadron in January 1941, where he joined Jimmy Marks, "Willie" Tait and George Holden. The squadron was converting to the new four-engine heavy bomber, the Handley Page Halifax. His time in 35 Squadron included seven raids on Berlin. Cheshire was promoted to acting squadron leader on 1 March 1941, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) later that same month. Losses among Bomber Command continued. Four months after Cheshire completed his DSO mission, "Lofty" Long was killed during a mission on 13 March 1941.

Trip to North America

At the start of May, 35 Squadron's Halifaxes were stood down to undergo modifications to address design flaws. Cheshire obtained a posting to the Atlantic Ferry Organisation to fly a Liberator across the Atlantic. On 4 May 1941 Cheshire reported aboard a Norwegian steamer to begin his trip across the Atlantic. The convoy was not intercepted by the German capital ships, but did suffer multiple attacks from German U-boats, and a number of ships were lost. Cheshire came through unscathed.

thumb|35 Squadron Halifax crew climbs aboard in preparation for a mission over the continent

Cheshire finally arrived in Canada to find the authorities there did not know who he was or what he was there for. He had expected to fly a Liberator or Canadian-built Halifax back to England but he was not allowed to, as he did not have experience in navigation. He and his companion RAF officer decided to take a short trip to New York while things were sorted out. While there he met former stage actress Constance Binney, who was twenty years older. In three weeks the two were married. Jimmy Marks was to witness the wedding, but was required to take an aircraft back to England before the wedding, so Cheshire and his bride had to use strangers as their witnesses. After a three-week wait he was finally allowed to shuttle a Hudson back to England. When he returned he was met by a single crewman, and learned that all the others from his Whitley had been lost on missions over Germany. It was a hard blow to Cheshire.

After his return, Cheshire resumed flying the Halifax in missions over Germany. He completed his second tour early in 1942. By the end of his time at 35 Squadron Cheshire had completed 50 sorties.

Flight instructor

After completing his tour at 35 Squadron, Cheshire was posted to a Heavy Conversion Unit (HCU) at RAF Marston Moor in North Yorkshire. Cheshire and three crews that transferred in from 102 Squadron made up the core of the unit. Cheshire was in charge of 30 to 40 aircraft and 1,800 to 2,000 men.

Cheshire did what he could to convey to the men being trained how what was being taught at the OCU would translate to saving lives once they began flying in earnest. In April he was awarded a bar to his DSO. And yet the time was a personal crisis for Cheshire. He longed to get back to operational flying but could not, as he could not ask Air Vice-Marshal Carr to reverse his promotion to Group Captain, and with such a rank no flying position was available. A possible 'out' arose when the AOC of the PFF, Don Bennett, arrived at his airfield to tour his station. Cheshire approached Bennett and asked permission to transfer to the Pathfinder Force. Bennett was not receptive. He replied that at present no jobs were available. Regardless, he was not sure if Cheshire would be suitable and a trial would be necessary. Temporary command of the squadron was passed to H. B. "Mick" Martin, one of the squadron's flight commanders. Of the original nineteen pilots that had flown the mission against the Möhne and Edersee Dams in Operation Chastise, only five remained alive. In September Cochrane asked Cheshire if he would be willing to take the job. Returning to squadron commander would require Cheshire giving up his rank of group captain and taking the step down to wing commander. Cheshire agreed without hesitation. Cochrane instructed Cheshire that first off he needed to complete a three-week conversion course on Lancasters at RAF Warboys.

thumb|The Australian [[Harold Martin (RAF officer)|"Mick" Martin]]

Cheshire knew the new post would be a challenge for him. Arriving at 617 Squadron he was regarded as an outsider.

On the night of 12/13 February 1944, 10 Lancasters from 617 Squadron flew across France to the viaduct. Cheshire and Martin approached to make a low-level marking of the line, but it was soon discovered that since the last attempt the Germans had placed a large number of flak guns on the hills overlooking the viaduct. Cheshire made several attempts to mark it, but could not get close enough to drop his marker on the line. Martin followed, but just as his aircraft was releasing his marker it was hit, badly. Two of the Lancaster's engines were knocked out, the bomb aimer had been killed, and several others, including Martin, were wounded. A return trip to England was out of the question, and his aircraft limped south to an airfield on Sardinia. Cheshire made five more attempts on the viaduct, but was unable to get close enough to leave his marker on the railway line. The squadron was called in and dropped their bombs off the nearest marker, but no direct hit was made and the viaduct was not destroyed. Cheshire returned in failure with a badly holed Lancaster. Despite his multiple runs at the target and the damage his aircraft sustained, it was the one mission of his career where he felt he had failed to press home his attack as he should have.

Following his failure at the Anthéor viaduct the low-level technique he would use for the rest of the war came together in Cheshire's mind. For the bombing force to be effective he had to wait upon good weather, as good visibility was essential at the target. In addition, the target would need to be illuminated. A marker aircraft would come in first and drop a hooded parachute flare at 5,000 feet. Next, a low-level target-marking aircraft would come in at 4,000 feet, identify the target building and make a 30-degree dive attack on it, releasing the marker flare at 100 feet directly upon the roof of the target. Though he had been doing this with the Lancaster, the heavy bomber was really not well suited to the job. Cheshire believed the low marker aircraft should be fast and more manoeuvrable. The Mosquito seemed an ideal choice. With the target marked, the main bombing force of Lancasters would come in, one by one, dropping their bombs on the marker. Noting how things can change in the course of military operations, the attacking force had to be able to adapt to the conditions faced. This meant communication between the leader and the bombing aircraft he was directing. the Tuilieres power station at Bergerac on 18 March, and the power station at Lyon on 25 March. The destruction continued into April when a version of Cheshire's low-level marking technique was used in raids against Toulouse on 5 April 1944, Saint-Cyr-l'École (fr) 10 April 1944, and the Juvisy marshalling yards on 18/19 April.

Second meeting with Harris

thumb|AOC Bomber Command Arthur Harris

With the string of successes in low-level marking Cochrane took Cheshire to see Harris to discuss their marking technique, request the use of Mosquito aircraft, and ask that 5 Group be allowed to mark for themselves against targets in Germany. Harris heard what they had to say, and though Cheshire's squadron had a good track record against lightly defended targets in France, it was likely going to be another story if they were to attempt such a technique against one of the heavily defended targets in Germany. There was a target in Germany that Harris felt he had yet to hit adequately: Munich. Said Harris "Mark me Munich and I will give you the Mosquitos. Miss Munich and you will lose the Mosquitos." His vantage point was in the support B-29 Big Stink. He did not witness the event as close up as anticipated due to aircraft commander James Hopkins' failure to link up with the other B-29s. Hopkins was meant to join with the others over Yakushima but he circled at instead of the agreed height of . He tried to justify this by the need to keep the VIP passengers out of danger but Cheshire thought that Hopkins was "overwrought". Cheshire later said of the experience "with such utter devastation before our eyes, how imperative to do something to see that it should never happen again."

By now Cheshire was desperate to return to England, and sent in applications and asked for interviews to quicken the process. Instead, the Air Ministry posted him to the Gulf of Mexico to teach low-level marking to the United States Army Air Forces, but he refused to do it. Finally he got his way and returned, but first had to report on his experiences at Nagasaki to the Prime Minister. He had been asked to do the job by Winston Churchill, but had to report to new Prime Minister Clement Attlee, who was startled by Cheshire's insistence that the answer to peace was more research into the development of atomic energy as a means of propulsion into space. Cheshire told Attlee that the race would be won by the efficacy of the means of delivering atom bombs and the means of protecting stockpiles from destruction. He suggested to Attlee that thinking should move away from conventional aircraft and rockets on Earth and to launch into Space. Cheshire noted that Attlee did not seem impressed.

Shortly after this conversation, Cheshire was summoned to his final Medical board and was told he had been diagnosed with psycho-neurosis and needed a year's complete rest. He was retired from the RAF with a disability pension on 22 January 1946, retaining his final rank of Group Captain. RAF doctors sent him to St Luke's Woodside hospital at Muswell Hill for rest and observation.

Cheshire as officer

thumbnail|A portrait of Cheshire in 1945

Cheshire did not consider himself a talented pilot, and felt he had to keep flying to keep his skills up. All the same he was a good captain, had a flair, and most importantly he had luck. It was commonly known among crews that he was lucky, and that is one reason he felt they liked to fly with him. By the end of his operational flying almost all the pilots he had started out with in training were gone. Historian Max Hastings wrote: "Cheshire was a legend in Bomber Command, a remarkable man with an almost mystical air about him, as if he somehow inhabited a different planet from those about him, but without affectation or pretension." Said Flight Sergeant Tom Gallantry, DFC, who served under Cheshire in 76 Squadron: "I felt at the time, and I have always felt, that it was an honour to be a member of his squadron. Everyone felt the same way about him. Air crew... ground crew. He was a terrific character." He decided to start a communal living experiment called 'Vade in Pacem' (in English, 'Go in Peace') first at Gumley Hall in Leicestershire, and then at Le Court in Hampshire His aim in establishing the VIP Colony was to provide an opportunity for ex-servicemen and women and their families to live together, each contributing to the community what they could to help their transition back into civilian life. He hoped that training, prosperity and fulfilment would result from united effort and mutual support. He saw the community as one way of continuing to work towards world peace. The community, however, did not prosper and the project came to an end in 1947.

At the beginning of 1948, Cheshire heard about Arthur Dykes, who had been one of Cheshire's original "VIP" community at Le Court, and was dying from cancer. Dykes asked Cheshire to give him some land to park a caravan until he recovered, but Cheshire discovered that Dykes was terminally ill and that this diagnosis was concealed from him. He told Dykes the real position and invited him to stay at Le Court. Cheshire learned nursing skills and was soon approached to take in a second patient, a 94-year-old woman recovering from a stroke. She was followed by others, some coming to stay and others to help.

Cheshire had identified a gap in the new National Health Service (NHS) and more were to come to him for help, willing to contribute their National Insurance payments and keen to share a home with others where they could make friends and all chip in together. By the summer of 1949 Le Court had 24 residents with complex needs, illnesses and impairments, and a tuberculosis ward. The local GP and others had misgivings about the project, but as Cheshire pointed out, no matter how basic or unsatisfactory it was from a medical viewpoint, the alternative for most of the people accepted to Le Court was much worse.

As word spread, referrals came from the new NHS hospitals already struggling to cope with waiting lists of people needing urgent care. Disabled people were at the very bottom of the list of priorities, often left to manage on their own, rely on others to help them get through each day or were stuck living in hospital wards. As Le Court became established, and people from different parts of the UK began to rally in response to local need for a similar home for people in their communities, the charity now known as Leonard Cheshire began. Le Court was to become the first 'Cheshire Home' and remained the flagship home of the charity Leonard Cheshire until its closure in 2007. Cheshire continued to live both at Le Court and after his marriage, at the Sue Ryder home in Cavendish for the rest of his life.

Humanitarian work

As a result of his experiences in the Second World War as a whole, Cheshire dedicated his life to peace and justice, defining it as ‘not just the absence of war or armed confrontation...peace is the effect, or consequence, of justice...we move towards peace proportionately as we succeed in removing injustice, particularly the injustice of mass starvation, and deprivation.’

As part of this work, he founded the following charities:

In 1948 his eponymous charity Leonard Cheshire, supporting people with disabilities across the world to live, learn and work as independently as they choose whatever their ability.

In 1953, Cheshire founded the Raphael Pilgrimage to enable sick and disabled Christians to travel to Lourdes on pilgrimage.

In 1959 with wife Sue Ryder, Ryder-Cheshire. This charity was set up for joint projects that did not fall under their respective foundations, and began with the founding of Raphael in Dehra Dun, India. Initially Raphael was for people with leprosy and tuberculosis (TB) and their families and continues today rehabilitating children with learning disabilities and those with TB. The UK branch of Ryder-Cheshire closed in 2010 and remaining funds were used to set up Target Tuberculosis and Enrych (previously Ryder Cheshire Volunteers). Enrych continues to work supporting people with disabilities by providing access to leisure and learning opportunities through volunteers. In Australia, Ryder-Cheshire Australia continues to support Raphael in India, a home at Klibur Domin in Timor-Leste also two Australian Homes in Mt. Gambier and Melbourne.

In 1990, towards the end of his life, Cheshire founded the UK charity the World Memorial Fund for Disaster Relief. He was increasingly concerned with remembrance, and the effects of natural and man-made disaster on the lives of disabled people and others experiencing injustice, hence the charity's motto ‘for every life lost, a life saved’. To raise money for the charity, concert The Wall – Live in Berlin by former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters was staged in Potsdamer Platz, Berlin. Cheshire opened this concert by blowing a Second World War whistle.

Cheshire's concerns with making Remembrance Day more meaningful for modern times was influential in the concept of the National Memorial Arboretum, founded by Commander David Childs CBE, Director of the World Memorial Fund for Disaster Relief. Childs was involved in the winding up of the Memorial Fund after Cheshire's death in 1992; he took each phrase of the fund's slogan ‘for every life lost, a life saved’ and created new projects out of remaining funds. For ‘a life saved’ in 1996 Childs and the trustees created The Leonard Cheshire Chair of Conflict Recovery, headed by an army surgeon, which provided advice to devastated post-conflict regions. This Chair was based at University College London at the Leonard Cheshire Research Centre, now called the UCL International Disability Research Centre. To ‘Remember a life lost’ they created the National Memorial Arboretum near Lichfield in Staffordshire. The amphitheatre at the Arboretum is dedicated to the memory of Leonard Cheshire, and is surrounded by his favourite tree the Copper Beech. The Millennium Chapel of Peace and Forgiveness contains the Cavendish Cross, carved by Ken Willoughby of the Essex Woodcarvers as a tribute to the life and work of Sue Ryder and Leonard Cheshire.

Christian faith

Cheshire's adoption of the Roman Catholic faith had nothing to do with the bombing of Nagasaki: Dykes died in August 1948 and, after completing the arrangements for his funeral, Cheshire read a book given him by a friend, One Lord, One Faith by Vernon Johnson, a High Anglican clergyman who had converted to Catholicism. On Christmas Eve 1948, Cheshire was received into the Catholic Church.

He received instruction from Father Henry Clarke, Petersfield's Roman Catholic parish priest at St Laurence Church. Clarke was also responsible for converting actor Alec Guinness and his wife Merula to Roman Catholicism.

Cheshire married fellow humanitarian Sue Ryder, also a Roman Catholic convert, in a private chapel at Bombay's Roman Catholic Cathedral on 5 April 1959.

Cheshire had a particular interest in the Shroud of Turin, about which he lectured and wrote books. In 1954 he embarked upon a pilgrimage to Turin with a young disabled girl and her family, who were seeking a cure from polio. Cheshire arranged with the Turin authorities for her to touch the Shroud, and later the girl and her family attributed this act of faith to her eventual recovery from the disease.

At the time of this pilgrimage, Cheshire was himself recovering from a tuberculosis infection that had destroyed one of his lungs and a few ribs; he attributed his recovery from the serious illness to the life-size replica of the shroud at the foot of his hospital bed. Cheshire lived at King Edward VII TB Hospital in Midhurst from 1952 to 1954 while recovering, and while there set up a 'Mission Bus' fitted with tape-recorded speeches on Christ's life, and a place to view a film on the Holy Shroud. The bus was parked in central London, with publicity stunts to attract visitors.

In 1992, when Cheshire knew he was dying from motor neurone disease, his last thoughts were gathered by his spiritual advisor Father Reginald C. Fuller in a book called Crossing the Finishing Line.

In 2017, on the centenary of Leonard Cheshire's birth, the Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia held a memorial Requiem mass to promote his cause for sainthood.

Return to Nagasaki

In 1985, Cheshire featured in a documentary, Nagasaki – Return Journey.

Private life

On 15 July 1941, Cheshire married the American actress Constance Binney, 21 years his senior. They divorced, childless, in January 1951.

On 5 April 1959, in Bombay's Roman Catholic Cathedral, he married Sue Ryder, also a Roman Catholic convert and humanitarian. He and Baroness Ryder were one of the few couples who both held titles in their own right. They had two children, Jeromy and Elizabeth Cheshire, and lived in Cavendish, Suffolk.

Cheshire was a lifelong tennis fan, a member of the All England Club, and an amateur tennis player well into his seventies.

Death

After his diagnosis with motor neurone disease, Leonard Cheshire and Sue Ryder made a final trip to the Raphael Centre they had founded in India. This journey was documented by David Puttnam and Anglia TV in the film Indian Summer.

Cheshire was determined to be present at the unveiling of Arthur "Bomber" Harris's memorial on 31 May 1992, and attended against the advice of his doctors. He said "I would have gone even if I had to be carried on a stretcher". Cheshire died two months later at his home in the Sue Ryder Care Home at Cavendish, Suffolk, on 31 July 1992, aged 74. There is a memorial to both in St Mary the Virgin's Church, Cavendish.

thumb|Memorial to Leonard Cheshire and Sue Ryder in St Mary's Church, Cavendish

Honours and tributes

  • Cheshire was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1960 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in central London.
  • On 17 July 1991, Cheshire was created a life peer as Baron Cheshire, of Woodhall in the County of Lincolnshire; he sat as a cross-bencher in the Lords.
  • He had declined the Companion of Honour (CH) in 1977 and 1980 New Year Honours.
  • Queen Elizabeth II paid personal tribute to him in her Royal Christmas Message in December 1992.
  • In the 2002 BBC poll to find the 100 Greatest Britons, Cheshire attained position number 31. His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Imperial War Museum, London.
  • In 2019, his old school, Stowe, opened a new girls' day house named Cheshire. Its boys' equivalent is named Winton after Nicholas Winton, another wartime Old Stoic humanitarian.
  • A house at Xavier College, a private school in Melbourne, Australia, is also named after Cheshire.

thumb|Cheshire's medal group on display at the [[Imperial War Museum.]]

{| class="wikitable"

|-

|50px || Victoria Cross (VC) || 8 September 1944

|-

|50px || Member of the Order of Merit (OM) || 13 February 1981

|-

|50px || Companion of the Distinguished Service Order and Two Bars || 6 December 1940

|-

|50px || Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) || 7 March 1941

|-

|50px || 1939–45 Star ||

|-

|50px || Air Crew Europe Star || With 1 clasp Atlantic

|-

|50px || Burma Star ||

|-

|50px || Defence Medal ||

|-

|50px || War Medal 1939–1945 with oak leaf for being Mentioned in Despatches ||

|-

|50px || Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal || (1953)

|-

|50px || Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal || (1977)

|}

Awards

  • Distinguished Service Order 6 December 1940
  • Distinguished Flying Cross 7 March 1941 In his speech, Leonard Cheshire said:

"I also, am very much aware, that although this beautiful and very symbolic award has been made to me personally, I am part of a great number of people of different nationalities and different backgrounds working together, and I am only a part... I accept it on behalf of all those connected with our homes, but also I’d like to feel that – if I may say this – That I’d also accept it on behalf of others (in so many other different ways) who are working among disabled people. On behalf of disabled people themselves, who are making such a contribution in their own way to the development and evolution of our society, because I feel very strongly that what we might for the moment call the 'world of disabled people', is a very united world. I feel very privileged to be a small part of that fraternity of people who are contributing, researching, working, and living with the objective of making life more livable for those who have some kind of disability".

  • Order of Merit 5 February 1981

Publications by Leonard Cheshire

  • Bomber Pilot. London: Hutchinson & Co, 1943; St Albans, Herts, UK: Mayflower, 1975. ; London: Goodall Publications
  • The Holy Face: An Account of the Oldest Photograph in the World (16-page pamphlet). Newport, Monmouthshire, UK: R. H. Johns, 1954.
  • Pilgrimage to the Shroud. London: Hutchinson & Co, 1956.
  • The Story of the Holy Shroud. Associated Television Ltd: ATV Library, 1957. Text of broadcast.
  • The Face of Victory. London: Hutchinson & Co, 1961.
  • Death (22-page pamphlet). London: Catholic Truth Society, 1978.
  • The Hidden World: An Autobiography and Reflections by the Founder of the Leonard Cheshire Homes. London: Collins, 1981. .
  • The Light of Many Suns: The Meaning of the Bomb. London: Methuen, 1985.
  • Where Is God in All This?. Slough, Berks, UK: St Paul Publications, 1991.
  • Crossing the Finishing Line: Last Thoughts of Leonard Cheshire VC (Edited by Reginald C. Fuller). London: St Paul's, 1998. .

Cheshire's private papers

Photographs, private and service letters, intelligence reports, crew lists and official documents about Leonard Cheshire's service in Bomber Command have been digitised and are available online.

Cheshire set up the Leonard Cheshire Archive in 1985 to preserve the legacy of his work and those who helped him. Digitised photographs, magazines, audio, film and oral histories from him and his work can be viewed on the history website Rewind: Seven decades of stories from Leonard Cheshire. Catalogues for the Leonard Cheshire Archive's collections can be viewed on the Archives Hub.

References

;Notes

;Citations

;Bibliography

  • Harvey, David. Monuments to Courage. Uckfield, East Sussex, UK: Naval & Military Press Ltd., 1999. .
  • Laffin, John. British VCs of World War 2: A Study in Heroism. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: Sutton Publishing Limited, 1997, .
  • Maynard, John Bennett and the pathfinders London: Arms and Armour, (1996).
  • Morgan, Eric B. and Edward Shacklady. Spitfire: The History (4th rev. edn.). London: Key Publishing, 1993. .
  • Murray, Williamson Strategy for defeat: the Luftwaffe, 1933–1945 Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala. : Air University Press, (1989)[1983]. .
  • The Register of the Victoria Cross. London: This England, 1997. .
  • Cheshire over the Gnome et Rhône aero-engine plant, low-level marking followed by 617 Squadron destroying the factory, 8 February 1944
  • Location of grave and VC medal (Suffolk)
  • History of the Leonard Cheshire charity
  • Ryder Cheshire
  • Image of Cheshire's Medals
  • Cheshire VC and the CND
  • Sue Ryder of Cavendish – Richard D. North
  • Imperial War Museum Interview
  • RAF Interview from 1978