Rear-Admiral Richard H. Leir was born in Penticton, BC, November 19, 1921. He joined the Royal Canadian Navy as a cadet in 1940, after attending Shawnigan Lake School, as well as the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, England, continued his early training with the Royal Navy. During World War II, he witnessed the sinking of the battlecruiser HMS Hood, and survived the sinking of the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the cruiser HMS Exeter. Following the latter, he was officially listed as dead for three years while actually a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese .