Anthony Payne

Adlestrop

Edward Thomas was born in Lambeth on 3rd March, 1878, and spent most of his childhood in London. His holidays, however, were spent with relatives in Swindon, and it was there that he developed his abiding love of all things rural. He was educated at St Paul's Hammersmith, and was encouraged in his creative writing by James Ashcroft Noble, whose daughter he secretly married, after her father's death, and to the great disapproval of her family. Despite growing anxiety over poverty, ill health and literary discouragement, which exacerbated a natural tendency to depression, Thomas worked unstintingly as a reviewer, and wrote and published over 30 books between 1897 and 1917. 'Adlestrop' was written with four other poems between 7th and 9th June 1915. He enlisted in 1915 at the age of 37, and was called to the Front in 1917. He arrived at Arras on 9th February 1917, and was killed on the 9th April, Easter Monday, by a shell blast in the opening minutes of the offensive. This work for Soprano and Piano was premiered by Jane Manning and Dominic Saunders at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1989. Text by Edward Thomas. A3 Score Available: SOS03574