The centenary of the death of Edward Thomas, who was killed on 9 April 1917 at the battle of Arras, will be marked on Sunday 9 April 2017 by organisers of South Downs poetry festival with a series of events at the poet’s final home at Steep in Hampshire.

The day in Steep begins with a reading of some of his work at the Poet’s Stone at Shoulder of Mutton hill at 10.30 am. Later there will be a workshop run by Denise Bennett at Steep village hall from 2-5pm, and walking and singing “in the spirit of Edward Thomas” around Steep village, finishing with a commemoration in the evening at All Saints church, Steep, from 7-9 pm.  

Thomas, initially an essayist and critic, began writing poetry only a few years before he died, encouraged by the American poet Robert Frost. His most well-known poem is ‘Adlestrop’, written a couple of months before the outbreak of the first world war. Ted Hughes said of him: “He is the father of us all.”