The poet who died in battle, at war with himself

Edward Thomas was killed at Arras in 1917, but had long been suicidal and disillusioned with his writing, says Richard Fitzpatrick

THE poet Edward Thomas, whom Ted Hughes called “the father of us all,” died on the first day of World War 1’s Arras offensive in 1917.

His was a peculiar death. Having survived the day’s battle, he filled his clay pipe for a smoke. A mortar shell flew past, so close to his ear that the blast stopped his heart.