Arthur Leighton was born in Surrey, England on 17 June 1873.  He was educated at Westminister Wesleyan Training College and the Birbeck and Scientific Institution (later, Birbeck College, University of London).
 
In 1903 he was appointed to and later become assistant manager with, the government of India's department of military supply at the newly constructed explosives factory at Aravunkadu.  In 1907 he met C Napier Hake, Chief Inspector of Explosives for Victoria, who
recommended him as designer and manager of the cordite factory to be established by the Commonwealth government at Maribyrnong,
Melbourne.  He was appointed in January 1909 and full production was achieved by 1912.
 
Leighton was requisitioned to England by the British government and appointed technical adviser on the manufacture of explosives to the British Ministry of Munitions (1915-1918).  He initiated a scheme for attracting Australian chemists to work in the British munitions program and similar schemes for technicians and tradesmen followed.  
In July 1916 Leighton was appointed general manager of an arsenal planned for Australia.  There is evidence that he held this position in 1919.  From his office in London, he enlisted scientists and engineers with expert knowledge of fighting equipment.  In 1919 he was appointed chairman of the Munitions Supply Board (CA 91) and instituted the Defence Research Laboratories (CA 2554).  The
Munitions Supply Board was preceded from 1919 by the Board of Factory Administration [I] until its creation on 13 August 1921.  It was succeeded by the Factory Board/(from 1945) Board of Factory
Administration [II] (CA 140) from 1 July 1939.  From 1921 to 1938 Leighton was controller-general of munitions supply.  He took a leading part in the preliminaries which led to the establishment of aeronautical research in the mid-1920s.  Leighton retired from the Department of Defence in November 1937 but returned as controller- general in May 1938 until June 1939 and in 1940 until 1946 as a consultant on explosives.  He retired in April 1950 aged 76 and died in November 1961.
 
Leighton became a fellow of the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain and Ireland in 1907 and served on its council.  In 1921 he was president of the Victorian branch of the fledgling Australian Chemical Institute, playing a major role in the negotiations leading to the granting of a royal charter.  In 1953 he was general president and he wrote a history of the institute.  The Leighton medal,
endowed by his daughter, is the premier award of the now Royal Australian Chemical Institute.
 
He twice declined Imperial honours at the end of World War I, but was appointed CMG in 1937.
 

Sources

Who's Who, 1927-28, 1938
Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10
Federal Guides, 1921-1947

Agency associated with person unregistered

1919-13 Aug 1921: Board of Factory Administration [1] - Chairman