Leake was born in London to John Martin Leake and Mary Calvert Leake. Following a family tradition, he joined the British
Royal Regiment of Artillery as an officer; he completed his training at the
Royal Military Academy, Woolwich in 1794 and was commissioned as a
second lieutenant. Having spent four years in the
West Indies as lieutenant of marine artillery, he was promoted to captain, and was sent in 1799 by the government to
Constantinople to train the forces of the
Ottoman Empire in the use of artillery. The British Empire had decided to support the Ottoman in its defence against Napoleonic France. A journey through
Asia Minor in 1800 to join the British fleet at
Cyprus inspired him with an interest in antiquarian topography. In 1801, after travelling across the desert with the Turkish army to
Egypt, he was, on the
expulsion of the French, employed in surveying the
Nile valley as far as the
cataracts; but having sailed with the ship engaged to convey the
Elgin Marbles from
Athens to England, he lost all his maps and observations when the vessel foundered off
Cerigo in Greece. For much of the first decade of the nineteenth century, Leake was employed by the
Foreign Office to spy in Greece in the guise of a wandering tourist, with the intent of gathering topographical information which would be useful in the case of a French invasion. Shortly after his arrival in England, he was sent out to survey the coast of
Albania and the
Morea, with the view of assisting the Turks against attacks of the French from Italy, and of this he took advantage to form a valuable collection of coins and inscriptions and to explore ancient sites. In 1807,
war having broken out between Turkey and England, he was made prisoner at
Salonica; but, obtaining his release the same year, he was sent on a diplomatic mission to
Ali Pasha of Ioannina, whose confidence he completely won, and with whom he remained for more than a year as British representative. He was there in 1809 when
Lord Byron visited Ali's court. In 1810 he was granted a yearly sum of £600 for his services in
Turkey. In 1815 he retired from the army, in which he held the rank of colonel, devoting the remainder of his life to topographical and antiquarian studies. He joined the learned
Society of Dilettanti and became vice-president of the
Royal Society of Literature. He was admitted a
Fellow of the Royal Society on 13 April 1815. He died in
Steyning, Sussex on 6 January 1860. The marbles collected by him in Greece were presented to the
British Museum; his bronzes, vases, gems and coins were purchased by the
University of Cambridge after his death, and are now in the
Fitzwilliam Museum. He was also elected as a Fellow of the
Royal Geographical Society, received the honorary
DCL at
Oxford in 1816, and was a member of the
Berlin Academy of Sciences and correspondent of the
Institute of France. ==Works==