Leslie (Les) Montague Groube was born in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, on 12 December 1937. He completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees at Auckland University, under Jack Golson. His early focus and fieldwork was on Maori settlement patterns. He later held positions in the Anthropology Departments of the University of Otago and the University of Auckland. The New Zealand Archaeological Association’s Groube Fieldwork Award (also known as the Groube Gumboot Award) was named in his honour. After 1969, Groube left New Zealand, and spent varying amounts of time in Canberra at the Australian National University, Port Moresby, Dorset, and Cambridge where he pursued fieldwork and lecture positions. He retired to Brittany, France, and died in 2018.