Philip Edward Thomas (3 March 1878 – 9 April 1917) was a British writer of poetry and prose. He is sometimes considered a war poet, although few of his poems deal directly with his war experiences. He only started writing poetry at the age of 36, but by that time he had already been a prolific critic, biographer, nature writer and travel writer for two decades. In 1915, he enlisted in the British Army and was killed in action at the Battle of Assar 1917, soon after he arrived.
He worked as a book reviewer, reviewing up to 15 books every week. 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 also wrote a novel, The Happy-Go-Lucky Morgans (1913), a "book of delightful disorder". Thomas worked as literary critic for the Daily Chronicle in London.
Even though Thomas thought that poetry was the highest form of literature and regularly reviewed it, he only became a poet himself at the end of 1914 and initially published his poetry under the name Edward Eastaway. Thomas immortalised the (now-abandoned) railway station at Adlestrop in a poem after his train made a stop at the Cotswolds station on 24 June 1914. There is a geocache marking the poem ‘Adlestrop(only a name) GC14VN7’ in Adlestrop village in Gloucestershire. There is a virtual cache to 'In the Footsteps of Edward Thomas - virtual reward, GC890AC.
Thomas enlisted in the Artists Rifles in July 1915, despite being a mature married man who could have avoided enlisting. He was killed in action soon after he arrived in France at Arras on Easter Monday, 9 April 1917. Thomas is buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetary at Agny France (Row C, Grave 43).
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