Thomas, (Philip) Edward

English poet and prose writer. His essays and his poems (including ‘Adlestrop’) were quiet, stern, melancholy evocations of rural life. Poems was published in October 1917 after his death in World War I, followed by Last Poems in 1918.

Born in London and educated at St Paul's School, London, as a child Thomas was fascinated by natural history. While at Lincoln College, Oxford University, he married and his first child was born before he took his final examinations. Always determined to earn his living as a writer, against his father's wishes, he scraped out a living for his family. He met the US poet Robert Frost and began writing poetry under his influence. After having to choose whether to move to the USA or enlist, Thomas chose military service and was killed on the first day of the Battle of Arras.