[1] He was educated at Gresham's School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he earned a degree in economics and a blue for field hockey.
[2] After Second World War service in the Royal Engineers, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel, in 1946 Layton was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire.
[2] In 1966, Layton founded Incomes Data Services, an independent research organization offering information and advice for those determining pay and employment policies in the United Kingdom.
The front page of the London Evening Standard called Layton "the man who did his sums", and the revelation had a large impact on the dispute.
[2] Layton married firstly in April 1939 (Joan) Elizabeth Gray, a Girton College, Cambridge, graduate and daughter of the Rev.