Sir Martin Gilbert: THE BATTLE OF ARRAS: ‘I shall miss something that historians can rake out of the ashes’ (Edward Thomas)
Dr Jean Moorcroft Wilson: EDWARD THOMAS: FROM ADLESTROP TO ARRAS
How did Edward Thomas, whose best-known poem 'Adlestrop' is about an unaccustomed stop at a deserted country station, come to join the ranks of the greatest First World War poets? Had he, for example, sailed with Robert Frost to America in February 1915 (as he seriously contemplated doing) his story and his work would have been very different. Instead, in July 1915, after months of indecision, he enlisted and by late January 1917 was in France. Just over two months later he was dead, killed on the first day of the Battle of Arras, 9 April 1917. The story of his vacillations and of his eventual enlistment is of particular interest, highlighting as it does the myriad different reasons why men like Thomas -- 'doubting Thomas' -- finally decided to fight.
Tickets are available from:
Mr Larry Skillman, Hon Treasurer, The Edward Thomas Fellowship
Eastbrook, Morleys Road, Weald, Sevenoaks, Kent TN14 6QX
Please make your cheque payable to The Edward Thomas Fellowship.
