His father knew Lloyd George
On the 9th April 1917, Easter Monday, the poet Edward Thomas was killed in the Battle of Arras.
His family were Welsh, and his father Philip was an active Liberal and attendee of the National Eisteddfod in 1906. He was a friend of David Lloyd George long before Lloyd George became President of the Board of Trade.
In 1936 David Lloyd George, prime minister Stanley Baldwin, and poet laureate John Masefield signed an appeal to create a memorial to Thomas, and on 2nd October 1937 it was unveiled on the Shoulder of Mutton hill in Hampshire.
‘Adlestrop’ is probably Edward Thomas’s best-known poem, but on this, the anniversary of his death, I felt it appropriate to quote his ‘In Memoriam (Easter, 1915)’.
The flowers left thick at nightfall in the wood
This Eastertide call into mind the men,
Now far from home, who, with their sweethearts, should
Have gathered them and will do never again.
