Leighton, Robert 'Norm'

 Robert Norman 'Norm' Leighton was born in New Plymouth on 19 September 1921 and attended Central School, then New Plymouth Boys’ High School. Later he worked for Dunlop Tyres in Egmont Street as a clerk and would remain there for many years.

Everyone knew him as ‘Norm’. A talented sportsman, he played senior grade rugby for the Old Boys’ rugby club and senior grade cricket for the Old Boys’ cricket club. There were several seasons when he captained both teams. One cricket teammate described him as “a tough competitor… a real personality and everybody’s friend.”

A halfback and a wicketkeeper, a newspaper article aptly described him “behind the scrum in one season and behind the wicket in another.” Norm played cricket for Taranaki.

With the on-set of war, he enlisted in July 1940 and went into a training camp the following September. He joined the Royal New Zealand Navy and served on seven ships during the Second World War.

In 1945 he returned to New Plymouth and his job at Dunlop’s. He continued to play club cricket for many years before gaining a promotion in the early 1960s as the manager of Dunlop Tyres’ branch in Palmerston North. There, he took up cricket umpiring.

He never lost his love for the Old Boys’ cricket club however, writing regular letters to club members and including regular financial donations over the years, including to help build the clubroom extensions at Western Park in the 1980s.

Norm married Betty (nee Byars) in November 1950, and the couple had four children. He died in Palmerston North on 26 February 1985.

Books

The Honours Board by Brian Beer, pages 168-169 et al.