He was born 24 February 1890 at Bollington, the son of Joseph Leighton and Hannah (formerly Hayes), and was baptised 30 March 1890 at Bollington Wesleyan Methodist Chapel. 

He lived at 4 Long Row in 1891 and at 11 Lowerhouse in 1901 and 1911. He was a grocer’s assistant in 1911 and worked at the Palmerston Street branch of the Co-op. 
He enlisted at Macclesfield and served overseas after 1915.
and served with the 61st Bty R.F.A
 He died of fever in Mesopotamia 6 November 1917 aged about 27 and was buried in Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery. 
He is named on the memorials at Bollington and the Methodist church. He is listed on the 1917 Roll of Honour. 
He was named as one of those "who have paid the Supreme Sacrifice during the War" at a Solemn Requiem Service held at St John's at 10.30 am on 3 November 1918

Conditions in Mesopotamia defy description. Extremes of temperature (120 degrees F was common); arid desert and regular flooding; flies, mosquitoes and other vermin: all led to appalling levels of sickness and death through disease. Under these conditions, units fell short of officers and men, and all too often the reinforcements were half-trained and ill-equipped. Medical arrangements were quite shocking, with wounded men spending up to two weeks on boats before reaching any kind of hospital. These factors, plus of course the unexpectedly determined Turkish resistance, contributed to high casualty rates.
11012 killed
3985 died of wounds
12678 died of sickness
13492 missing and prisoners (9000 at Kut)
51836 wounded
data from “Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire” (London: HMSO, 1920).
In 1914, Baghdad was the headquarters of the Turkish Army in Mesopotamia. It was the ultimate objective of the Indian Expeditionary Force 'D' and the goal of the force besieged and captured at Kut in 1916. The city finally fell in March 1917, but the position was not fully consolidated until the end of April. Nevertheless, it had by that time become the Expeditionary Force's advanced base, with two stationary hospitals and three casualty clearing stations. The North Gate Cemetery was begun In April 1917 and has been greatly enlarged since the end of the First World War by graves brought in from other burial grounds in Baghdad and northern Iraq, and from battlefields and cemeteries in Anatolia where Commonwealth prisoners of war were buried by the Turks. At present, 4,160 Commonwealth casualties of the First World War are commemorated by name in the cemetery.