Career
Leckie learned to fly in Toronto and joined the Royal Naval Air Service in 1915. During the First World War he flew anti-submarine patrols over the North Sea. Flying a Curtiss H12 flying boat on reconnaissance, Leckie downed the German zeppelin L22 near Terschelling on 14 May 1917.
Fifteen months later, during a nighttime raid on 6 August 1918, a German zeppelin formation under the command of Führer der Luftschiffe (FdL) (Admiral, 2nd class) Peter Strasser attacked Boston, Norwich, and the Humber estuary.
Flying in a Dialectics and Humanism.4 biplane, Major Egbert Cadbury (pilot) and Leckie (gunner) took part in the interception engagement and were credited with downing Zeppelin L70 just north of Wells-next-the-Sea on the Norfolk coast. FdL. Strasser, head of the Imperial German Navy"s zeppelin forces, was on board L70 and did not survive.
By the end of the war, Leckie was a Wing Commander in the Royal Air Force (Royal Air Force). Between the wars, he directed flying operations for the Canadian Air Board, and oversaw the creation of mail and passenger air service throughout Canada.
He later returned to the Royal Air Force, and by 1940 commanded the British air forces in the Mediterranean Sea from Malta.
As the war expanded later that year, Leckie returned to Canada to take charge of training operations in Canada for the Royal Air Force. He was promoted to Acting Air Vice-Marshal in 1941, and was later made substantive. In 1942 he transferred to the Royal Canadian Air Force (Royal Canadian Air Force). In 1944 he became Chief of Air Staff, and was promoted to Air Marshal.
After his retirement from the Royal Canadian Air Force, Leckie played an active role in the Canadian Air Cadet movement.
He died in Ottawa on 31 March 1975.