Keith Douglas (January 24, 1920 - June 9, 1944), was an English poet of World War II.
He was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and educated at Christ's Hospital and at the University of Oxford. He had a difficult childhood, his father deserting the family when Douglas was at preparatory school and his mother unwell for long periods. In one of his letters written in 1940 he looks back on his childhood: 'I lived alone during the most fluid and formative years of my life, and during that time I lived on my imagination, which was so powerful as to persuade me that the things I imagined would come true'. Within days of the declaration of war he had reported to an army office with the intention of joining a cavalry regiment. Like many others keen to serve he had to wait and it was not until July 1940 that he started his training. On the 1st February 1941 he passed out from Sandhurst, the officer training school, and was posted to the Second Derbyshire Yeomanry at Ripon. He fought in North Africa in 1941. In 1944, he took part in the D-Day invasion of Normandy, in the course of which he was killed.
Biography from: Wikipedia.org |
