1852 and served on its committee 1866–69, 1877–79, 1888–1891. He was elected president in 1887 having been nominated by Lord Lyttleton. He never forgot his alma mater – Harrow School – and helped establish the Old Harrovians Field House Club in 1884. He was President of the Club following his close friend the Earl of Bessborough. Leigh's cricketing career and first-class stats might be considered average but he was a popular choice as President of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in its first centenary year in 1887 and the Golden Jubilee year of Queen Victoria. At the centenary MCC dinner at the old Tennis Court it was said of him his speech that night rivaled Leighton at the Royal Academy. "I will say that the old cricketer stood up bravely in bumpy grounds in spite of awkward knocks and ugly bruises." Wisden acknowledged him as an excellent "long-stop" who "will let a ball go through him rather than by him" and his style of batting was awkward, but he is a fine hitter forward and to leg. It was said of Leigh in his maturer years by one who had played many matches with him when he was captain of I Zingari teams, that if ever there was a man to pull a match out of the fire by his management, he was that man. The same principle which he carried out on hunting when he came to a big fence, "throw your heart over and the body will follow" was his rule with the bat – he would not be beat. "The man himself was more entertaining than the printed page. To sit beside him in the pavilion at Lords' or in the Old Stagers enclosure at Canterbury was to see cricket as it was played in the golden days". At Lord's he was always to be seen on match days at the 'Knatchbull's corner - the place of the Four-in-Hand Club – with his friends John Lorraine Baldwin, Sir Spencer Ponsonby Fane, Earl of Bessborough and Robert Grimston.' The famous old cricketer, with his hat drawn over his eyes, and his burly physique set a figure that always arrested attention. Professional and public career In 1890 Leigh was founder member of the London Playing Fields Society, which successfully secured land in London for cricket and football to be played for London's citizens. He was Recorder of Nottingham from