Roland Leighton

Roland Aubrey Leighton (27 March, 1895-23 December, 1915), was a British poet and soldier, immortalised in Vera Brittain's memoir, "Testament of Youth".

His parents, Robert Leighton and Marie Connor, were both writers. Leighton was a pupil at Uppingham School, where he became a close friend of Vera Brittain's brother, Edward. He obtained a commission in 1915 and served with the Worcestershire Regiment in France. He died of wounds on 23 December 1915 at the age of twenty (although his gravestone incorrectly states that he was 19), having been shot through the stomach while inspecting wire, and is buried in the military cemetery at Louvencourt, near Doullens, France.

Vera Brittain, who had accepted his proposal of marriage four months before his death, was to include him, and quote some of his work, in her writing at the time, and later in "Testament of Youth"; many of Leighton's letters are included in "Letters from a Lost Generation", a compilation of her wartime letters that was published after her death. His mother anonymously published a memoir of him called "Boy of My Heart".

Roland's younger sister was artist Clare Leighton.

External links

* [http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/thegreatwar/articles/individuals/leighton.htm Biography including some of his poetry]
* [http://www.ppu.org.uk/learn/infodocs/people/pst_vera.html Leighton’s gravestone]
* [http://www.nancyhuntting.net/Courage2-sem.htm Notes about their relationship]
* [http://www.haverford.edu/engl/english354/GreatWar/Brittain/roland1A.jpgImage of Leighton]