John Catterall Leach DSO (1894–1941) (often known as Jack) was a British naval officer. He was the only captain of the battleship

Battleship

A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...

  during her short period in service.

The Bismarck

Very soon after the Prince of Wales entered active service in 1941 she fought under Captain Leach's command in the Battle of the Denmark Strait

Battle of the Denmark Strait

The Battle of the Denmark Strait was a Second World War naval battle between ships of the Royal Navy and the German Kriegsmarine, fought on 24 May 1941...

, and suffered damage fighting the German battleship Bismarck

German battleship Bismarck

Bismarck was the first of two s built for the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. Named after Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the primary force behind the German unification in 1871, the ship was laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in July 1936 and launched nearly three years later...

. However damage inflicted by the Prince of Wales caused the Bismarck to lose fuel, forcing the latter to attempt to return to a base in occupied France.

Despite a proposal to court-martial Leach for breaking off the action with the Bismarck after the Hood had sunk, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order

Distinguished Service Order

The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...

 for his part.

Force Z

In late 1941, Prince of Wales formed part of Force Z

Force Z

Force Z was an Allied naval detachment consisting of the battleship , the battlecruiser , and four destroyers, , , , and . Initially an aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable was included, but she ran aground in the Caribbean, and was not replaced by HMS Hermes which was regarded as too slow.A renamed...

 sent to Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

. Off of the coast of Malaya

British Malaya

British Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the Island of Singapore that were brought under British control between the 18th and the 20th centuries...

, she was sunk

Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse

The sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse was a Second World War naval engagement that took place north of Singapore, off the east coast of Malaya, near Kuantan, Pahang where the British Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse were sunk by land-based bombers and...

 by the Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese. Captain Leach apparently abandoned Prince of Wales at the very last minute, but did not survive the vessel's sinking. His body was seen floating in the water a short time after the sinking.

His son was Henry Leach

Henry Leach

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry Conyers Leach, GCB, DL was a former First Sea Lord, the professional head of the Royal Navy. Leach was the First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff between 1979 and 1982, being the professional head of the Navy at the time of the Falklands War...

, who was First Sea Lord

First Sea Lord

The First Sea Lord is the professional head of the Royal Navy and the whole Naval Service; it was formerly known as First Naval Lord. He also holds the title of Chief of Naval Staff, and is known by the abbreviations 1SL/CNS...

 of the Royal Navy during the Falklands War

Falklands War

The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...

.