Edward Thomas was a War Poet in World War I, who died fighting in the Battle of Arras in 1917. The First World War Poetry Digital Archive has a large collection of his resources including letters and diary entries, which have map co-ordinates attached to them. We have plotted these on a Google Map so you can see his journey and thoughts as he travelled from London, through training then into France, before moving towards the front line at Arras.
This data is also available as a KML file which you can edit and overlay on Google Earth and other map software.
To view Thomas’ journey in Google Earth: If you haven’t already, download Google Earth to your computer, then download the KLM file (right click | save as). A KML file is a file that contains geographic annotation and visualisation for earth viewing software. Open the file in Google Earth. You can use your cursor to move the globe and in many cases zoom down to street level. Click on the pins for links to the Poetry Archive.