Early Life
Leigh was educated at The Oratory School, the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle (the French School in London), before going up to University College, Durham where he read History (BA) and was elected President of the Durham Union Society. Before entering politics, he qualified as a barrister at the Inner Temple, and practised in arbitration and criminal law as a member of Goldsmiths Chambers. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Leigh was elected a member of Richmond Borough Council and thereafter of the Greater London Council, serving as Councillor between 1974 and 1981.
His father, the late Sir Neville Leigh KCVO, was Clerk to the Privy Council and hailed from the West Hall, High Legh family. Leigh is a nephew of Princess Nikolai Galitzine and has six children (sons Benedict, Nicholas, Theodore, born 1988, 1994 and 1997, and daughters Natalia, Tamara and Marina, born 1985, 1987 and 1990) by his wife, Mary Goodman, a grandniece of George, Duke of Mecklenburg, a great grand daughter of Lady Ottoline Morrell, whom he married in London on 25 September 1984.
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