(b London, 29 Aug. 1817; d London, 29 Oct. 1864). English caricaturist and illustrator, one of the leading artists of Punch from its foundation in 1841 until his death. He made over 3,000 pictures for Punch alone (including political cartoons and scenes of everyday life) and he was also particularly associated with the sporting novels of R. S. Surtees. The other books he illustrated included R. H. Barham's The Ingoldsby Legends (1840) and Charles Dickens's Christmas Books (1843). Dickens said of his pictures that they were ‘always the drawings of a gentleman’, and Leech more than any other set the gentlemanly tone for Punch.