On the eve of his death, his descendants gathered yesterday to commemorate the life of the soldier, who served in the 16th Waikato Company, Auckland Infantry Regiment.
Pte Leitch died in hospital two days after being shot in the head, just months before the end of World War 1, aged 45.
Relative Dawn Perkins, who organised the commemoration, said Pte Leitch farmed at Kuri Bush, near Taieri Mouth, before enlisting.
Proceedings began at the Leitch Memorial Hall in Taieri Mouth, finishing with a service of remembrance at Otokia Cemetery in Henley.
While he was buried in the St Sever Cemetery in Rouen, some 20,000km from his farm, his name was imprinted in a headstone on the Leitch family plot in the Otokia Cemetery, Mrs Perkins said.
Near the conclusion of the service, held on a still and cloudless day, pairs of tui and kereru happened to fly past those assembled, before bugler Sara Arnel played the Last Post.
Pte Leitch’s great-great nephew Sergeant Lloyd Leitch, a driving instructor in the New Zealand Army at Burnham Military Camp, spoke at the service.
