Sir John Leigh, 1st Baronet



Sir John Leigh, 1st Baronet (3 August 1884 – 28 July 1959) was a British mill-owner, who used his fortune to buy a newspaper and launch his career as a Conservative politician.

Leigh, whose family resided for generations at Pennington was descended from a cadet branch of the Barons Leigh (of the first creation) and was educated at Manchester Grammar School.

Leigh made his fortune in the Lancashire cotton industry. In February 1918, he was created a baronet of Altrincham in Cheshire, and around 1921 he purchased the Pall Mall Gazette. Sir John was rumoured at the time to be worth fourteen million pounds.

He was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for the Clapham division of Wandsworth at a by-election in May 1922 after the resignation of the Conservative MP Sir Arthur du Cros, and held the seat until retiring at the 1945 general election.