Rev Dr Richard Leslie Hills was a Manchester-based historian, clergyman and author. Hills was one of the founders and director of the Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester. Hills was committed to collecting and exhibiting historic working machinery and was instrumental in helping to rescue the archives of the Beyer, Peacock locomotive manufacturing company. Hills oversaw the museum's move from a building on university campus to Manchester's Liverpool Road historic railway site. Hills retired in 1983, but continued to write on the subject of industrial history and remained active in the Church of England.