Some sixty-five letters, 1916-1917, from Edward Thomas to his wife, Helen Thomas, giving accounts of his training as an army officer, his departure to France, and experiences at the front until his death.

First World War diary of the poet and essayist Edward Thomas, 1 January-8 April 1917, containing descriptions of army life in England and France, observations on the natural world, and brief accounts of letters sent and received. It also contains the only known draft of Thomas's last poem, 'The sorrow of true love' (f. 29), dated 13 January 1917. The covers and leaves of the diary are heavily creased, suggesting that it may have been in Thomas's pocket when he was killed by a shell on the first day of the Battle of Arras on 9 April 1917. For an edited version of the diary's text, see The Collected Poems of Edward Thomas, ed. by R. George Thomas (Oxford, 1978), pp. 460-481. Three items found loose inside the diary's covers, including a draft of Thomas's poem, 'The Lane' [1916], have been filed as NLW MS 24030iiA.