Carl Leckey is the youngest of three children. He grew up in wartime Britain and loved the excitement of having Italian prisoners of war in the area. His time as a kid was spent collecting shrapnel and clambering around the shipwrecks on the shore of the Mersey. One of his favourite places was his grandfather’s allotment where old World War One comrades would meet in the garden shed to share a drink and a smoke.
Carl served on the Mersey tugs for 15 years with a break for two years National Service from the age of 19 to 21.
On returning to the tugs he rose to the rank of Mate, before being made redundant at the age of 30 in 1968 when the company was taken over. He then worked as a Leading Lock Keeper for British Waterways in Cheshire for 28 years until ill health brought premature retirement. He was a Union Steward Convenor, and Worker Representative on the Company Pension Fund Management Committee. In 1985 he was awarded a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship to study Ports and Harbour Services on the Mississippi and Yangtze Rivers in the USA and China.
In 1995 he was awarded an MBE for services to British Waterways.
