As the first male to go over the Falls in a barrel, the English Bobby Leach was the second person to tackle this death-defying stunt. On July 25, 1911, in an eight foot steel drum, Leach went over the Falls.

The second man (and third person overall) to survive a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel was the English daredevil Bobby Leach. He made his historic plunge on July 25, 1911, in a large steel barrel. While he survived the drop, he spent six months in the hospital recovering from two broken kneecaps and a fractured jaw. Leach became a world-renowned figure, touring the globe to recount his feat. Ironically, after surviving the world's most dangerous waterfall, he met a mundane and tragic end in 1926. While on a lecture tour in New Zealand, he slipped on an orange peel, injuring his leg. The wound became infected with gangrene, leading to an amputation from which he never recovered. He died two months later. His story remains a staple of Niagara Falls folklore in 2026, serving as a cautionary tale about the "irony of fate" and the extreme physical toll that even "successful" daredevil stunts can take on the human body.