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A
Londoner who loved the countryside, Thomas was born
in Lambeth and educated at St Paul's School, where he
began to write poetry, and Oxford. He scraped a living
as a literary journalist and writer, first in London
and later in Kent. In July 1915, at the age of thirty-seven,
he enlisted in the Artists' Rifles and was made a lance
corporal. He was much older than other volunteers, and
was married with children. When a friend asked him if
he knew what he would be fighting for, he picked up
a pinch of earth and, crumbling it, said, 'Literally,
for this.' He wrote 144 poems between December 1914
and January 1917, all of them while he was still in
England.
He
trained as a map-reading instructor with the Royal Artillery
and arrived on the Western Front in January 1917. He
was posted to a Heavy Artillery group at Arras where
a massive build-up for a spring offensive was in progress.
On 9 April, Easter Monday, he was killed in his forward
observation post by the blast of a shell.
Edward
Thomas Fellowship
Private view of the exhibition
19 November
Members only, for further information
Tel: Colin Thornton 01983 853366
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