大象传媒

A century after the start of World War One, Christ College in Brecon have released archive photographs of its former pupil, David Cuthbert Thomas, the man who fought in the trenches alongside two of our best known war poets Siegfried Sasoon and Robert Graves.

A former pupil of Christ College, he joined the ranks of the Public Schools Battalion in August 1914, immediately after leaving school. He later gained his commission into the Royal Welsh Fusiliers where he met literary giants Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves, both of whom wrote poems about him.

The only son of Rev E Thomas, Vicar of Llanedy, David Cuthbert Thomas was a School Prefect and a member of the Classical Sixth, achieving his Higher Certificate in the summer of 1914 with passes in Latin, Greek, Scripture with Greek text, and Roman History.

He was also a good all-round athlete and played for the 1st team of the major sports of the time. Over the two seasons in which he played as a forward in the Rugby Football XV (1912 and 1913), he is described as good tackler who made the most his height in the line-out; as a back in the Hockey XI (1914) he seems to have had similar talents, 鈥渢hough apt to foul and rather inclined to overdo dribbling鈥�; he played for the Cricket XI for three seasons, doing 鈥渆xcellent service as a steady batsman鈥�.

From December 1912 until he left school just before the outbreak of war, David Cuthbert Thomas was also an Editor of the school magazine, The Breconian.

David Cuthbert-Thomas fought in the trenches alongside the celebrated poets Sasoon and Graves and his death affected them more than any of their comrades. Sassoon鈥檚 poems reference Thomas as a cricketer, including in his poem 鈥楾he Subaltern鈥� which was published just a week before Thomas was killed by a sniper鈥檚 bullet in No Man's Land, repairing barbed wire lines near Fricourt, on the night of 18 March 1916 aged 21.

His great friend Sassoon wrote the next day: 鈥淭onight I saw his shrouded form laid in the earth 鈥� Robert Graves beside me with his white whimsical face twisted and grieving". 鈥淥nce we could not hear the solemn words for the noise of a machine-gun along the line; and when all was finished a canister fell a hundred yards away and burst with a crash." 鈥淪o Tommy left us, a gentle soldier, perfect and without stain. And so he will remain in my heart, fresh and happy and brave.鈥�

Graves said Thomas's death angered Sassoon so much he went out looking for Germans to kill. In his celebrated war novel Goodbye To All That, he wrote: 鈥淚 felt David鈥檚 death worse than any other since I had been in France, but it did not anger me as it did Siegfried. He was acting transport-officer and every evening now, when he came up with the rations, went out on patrol looking for Germans to kill. I just felt empty and lost.鈥�

Thomas appeared throughout both poets鈥� memoirs and Graves wrote about him in his poems Goliath and David and Not Dead.

Location: Christ College, Brecon LD3 8AF
Image: David Cuthbert Thomas (right) with war poet Siegfried Sassoon 1915

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