Roland Leighton

Roland Aubrey Leighton (born March 27, 1895 in London , † December 23, 1915 in Louvencourt ) became famous as Vera Brittain's fiance . Leighton, whose parents Robert Leighton and Marie Connor were both writers, also wrote poems, which he did not publish independently, but rather sent in letters to his fiancée. As a student at Uppingham School he met Vera Britains brother Edward, and together with Victor Richardson the three young men were dubbed the "three musketeers". Leighton had received a scholarship to Oxford University . But instead of taking up a degree, he was accepted as an officer in the Royal Norfolk Regiment in October 1914 . As an officer with the Worcestershire Regiment , he came to the front in France in the spring of 1915. Leighton was badly wounded by a sniper and died in a field hospital near Louvencourt.

literature

• AG Bishop, Mark Bostridge (Ed.): Letters of a Lost Generation. First World War Letters of Vera Britain and Four Friends. Little, Brown & Company, 1998.

Web links

• The Roland Leighton Collection in the Poetry Digital Archives at Oxford University
• Roland Aubrey Leighton on the Western Association website. Also includes examples of his poems.