![]() ![]() In 1906 the family moved to Steep, East Hampshire, on the outskirts of the market town of Petersfield - attracted by the landscape, its links with London, and schooling at the innovative co-educational private school Bedales. On one occasion, Thomas arranged for the manufacture, by a local wheelwright, of a makeshift wooden leg for Davies. He rented a tiny cottage nearby to Davies, and nurtured his writing as best he could. From 1905 until 1906, Thomas lived with his wife Helen and their two children at Elses Farm near Sevenoaks, Kent. Davies, whose career he almost single-handedly developed. Thomas worked as literary critic for the Daily Chronicle in London and became a close friend of Welsh tramp poet W. He also wrote a novel, The Happy-Go-Lucky Morgans (1913), a "book of delightful disorder". He was already a seasoned writer by the outbreak of war, having published widely as a literary critic and biographer as well as writing about the countryside. He then worked as a book reviewer, reviewing up to 15 books every week. In June 1899, he married Helen Berenice Noble (1877–1967) in Fulham, while still an undergraduate, and determined to live his life by the pen. From Oxford to Adlestrop īetween 18, Thomas was a history scholar at Lincoln College, Oxford. Such was the family’s connection to this part of Wales that three of Edward Thomas’ brothers were sent to school at Watcyn Wyn’s Academy in Ammanford, where Gwili had become headmaster in 1908. Gwili’s elegy for Thomas describes the many walks they took together in the countryside around Pontardulais and Ammanford. Thomas also enjoyed a twenty-year friendship with a distant cousin, the teacher, theologian and poet, John Jenkins (Gwili), of the Hendy, just across the county border from Pontardulais. Like his father before him, Edward Thomas continued throughout his life to visit his many relatives and friends in Ammanford, Newport, Swansea and Pontardulais. Philip Henry Thomas “cultivated his Welsh connections assiduously,” so much so that Edward Thomas and his brothers could even boast that their father knew Lloyd George. There were frequent journeys to Merthyr to lecture on behalf of the Ethical Society, and even a visit in 1906 to a National Eisteddfod in north Wales. His feelings for Wales were also manifest in other ways. Īlthough Edward Thomas’ father, Philip Henry Thomas, had left Tredegar for Swindon (and then London) in his early teens, “the Welsh connection was … enduring.” He continued throughout his life to visit his relatives in south Wales. Mary and Philip were, of course, Edward Thomas’ parents. Their daughter, Mary Elizabeth Townsend, married Philip Henry Thomas. His maternal grandmother was Catherine Marendaz, from Margam, just outside Port Talbot, where her family had been tenant farmers since at least the late 1790s. Thomas' maternal grandfather was Edward Thomas Townsend, the son of Margaret and Alderman William Townsend, a Newport merchant active in Liberal and Chartist politics. ![]() Their son, Philip Henry, who was Edward Thomas' father, had been born in Tredegar and spent his early years there. His grandmother, Rachel Phillips, had been born and brought up there, whilst his grandfather, Henry Thomas, who'd been born in Neath, worked there as a collier and then an engine fitter. ![]() Of these, his paternal grandparents lived in Tredegar. All four of his grandparents had been born and brought up in Wales. Of his six great-grandparents for whom information has been found, five were born in Wales, and one in Ilfracombe. He was educated at Belleville School, Battersea Grammar School and St Paul's School, all in London. He was born in Lambeth, an area of present-day south London, previously in Surrey. Life and career Background and early life Įdward Thomas was the son of Mary Elizabeth Townsend and Philip Henry Thomas, a civil servant, author, preacher and local politician.
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