His parents,
Robert Leighton and
Marie Connor, were both writers. Marie was the more commercially successful and wrote adventure books (the best known being
Convict 99) and also stories that were serialised in the
Daily Mail. Her husband was the first literary editor of the
Daily Mail and wrote adventure books for boys. Roland was brought up initially at "Vallombrosa" 40 Abbey Road,
St John's Wood, North London, and later at "Heather Cliff" a large Edwardian house above the beach at
Lowestoft. Leighton was a prizewinning classical scholar at
Uppingham School; one pupil joked that Leighton would need a wheelbarrow to recover his haul from the 1914 school prize-giving. His hope was to one day become the editor of a national newspaper. At the school, Leighton did not have a wide circle of friends as he was regarded by his peers as being rather cold and conceited. He did however become a close friend of
Edward, brother of future author and journalist
Vera Brittain, and
Victor Richardson, the son of a Hove dentist; Mrs Leighton called the friends "the three musketeers". At Uppingham he was acting cadet officer in the
Junior Division, Officers Training Corps. On leaving Uppingham, Leighton applied to Oxford University and was awarded the
classical postmastership at
Merton College, Oxford. In the meantime, he had developed an interest in reading poetry and writing his own verse whilst at Uppingham. Leighton subsequently used the medium of poetry to express his burgeoning love for Vera Brittain, Edward's sister. He first met Vera when visiting Edward at Uppingham in 1913 at the age of 19. However, war was soon to intervene in their relationship. When
World War I broke out in 1914, he was highly motivated to join the fighting by ideas of patriotism, honour and duty, and sought to get to the front. He first tried to get into the
Royal Navy, but was turned down due to short-sightedness. For the same reason he was rejected by the
Royal Artillery and the
Army Service Corps. After this experience, he procured a "general fitness" certificate from a local
GP which did not make reference to his myopia, and was able to secure a
commission as a second lieutenant in the 4th Battalion of the
Norfolk Regiment on 21 October 1914. Leighton served with the Worcestershire Regiment in France, and was engaged in the fighting around Ypres in Belgium. Vera Brittain became his fiancée in August 1915. He converted to
Roman Catholicism from
Church of England while at the Front in late 1915. This event, which took place in the summer of 1915, according to his fiancée, was unknown to anyone of his family or to her. His funeral took place according to Catholic rites. In December 1915, he was shot by a sniper while inspecting the wire, in bright moonlight, in front of a trench at
Hébuterne, France. He sustained a catastrophic abdominal and spinal injury. While still on the battlefield, he said simply, "They got me in the stomach and it's bad," before he was rendered semi-conscious by morphine. Leighton underwent emergency abdominal surgery at
Louvencourt. However, he survived only a short time, dying of his wounds on 23 December 1915 at the age of 20 (his gravestone incorrectly states that he was 19). His burial service was held at Louvencourt church. He is buried in the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery at Louvencourt, near
Doullens. The inscription chosen for the headstone reads: "GOODNIGHT, THOUGH LIFE AND ALL TAKE FLIGHT, NEVER GOOD-BYE." Roland's final poem, which was found in his clothes after his death was "Hedauville". Brittain found the poem unsettling and difficult to fully understand. It seemed as if perhaps Roland was predicting his own death in "Hedauville", and foresaw a different life for Vera, with a new love. Vera Brittain wrote several poems commemorating Leighton's life which were published in her 1918 work,
Verses of a V.A.D., and her later volume
Because You Died. She later immortalised him and her brother Edward in her famous memoir
Testament of Youth. He is also remembered along with Edward Brittain and Victor Richardson on the war memorial at
St Barnabas Church, Hove; this was the church attended by the Richardson family. His brother Evelyn, five years his junior, joined the Royal Navy, reaching the rank of captain; he was involved in the
evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940 and awarded the OBE. His sister
Clare Leighton became a talented woodcut artist; she wrote a biography of her mother,
Tempestuous Petticoat. ==Popular culture==