Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor, DSO, OBE (11 February 1915 – 10 June 2011), also known as Paddy Fermor, was a British author, scholar, and soldier who played a prominent role behind the lines in the Cretan resistance during the Second World War. He was widely regarded as Britain's greatest living travel writer during his lifetime. A BBC journalist once described him as "a cross between Indiana Jones, James Bond and Graham Greene." His last school report noted that the young Leigh Fermor was "a dangerous mixture of sophistication and recklessness".

Leigh Fermor was married in 1968 to the Honourable Joan Elizabeth Rayner (née Eyres Monsell), daughter of Bolton Eyres-Monsell of Dumbleton, 1st Viscount Monsell. She accompanied him on many of his travels until her death in June 2003, aged 91. They lived part of the year in their house in an olive grove near Kardamyli in the Mani Peninsula, southern Peloponnese, and part of the year in Gloucestershire. Leigh Fermor died, aged 96, on 10 June 2011, the day after his return to England. His funeral took place at St Peter's Church, Dumbleton, Gloucestershire, on 16 June 2011. A Guard of Honour was provided by serving and former members of the Intelligence Corps, and a bugler from the Irish Guards sounded the Last Post and reveille. Leigh Fermor is buried next to his wife in the churchyard at Dumbleton. The Greek inscription is a quotation from Cavafy that can be translated as "In addition, he was that best of all things, Hellenic".