Leslie Johnson was deputy fire officer of Somerset Fire Brigade from 1967 to 1972, and then chief fire officer from 1972 to 1978. Hestercombe House, near Taunton in Somerset was the fire brigade headquarters from 1953 to 2008. From 1973 to 1978 Mr Johnson chaired the working party that oversaw the restoration of the Formal Garden by Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jeyll at Hestercombe.