Keith Castellain Douglas (24 January 1920 – 9 June 1944) was a poet and soldier noted for his war poetry during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and his wry memoir of the
Western Desert campaign, ''
Alamein to Zem Zem''.
He was
killed in action during the invasion of
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
.
Poetry
Douglas described his poetic style as "extrospective";
that is, he focused on external impressions rather than inner emotions or feelings. The result is a poetry which, according to his detractors, can be cold even callous in the midst of war's atrocities. For others, Douglas's work is powerful and unsettling because its exact descriptions eschew egotism and shift the burden of emotion from the poet to the reader. His best poetry is generally considered to rank alongside the 20th century's finest soldier-poetry.
In his poem, "Desert Flowers" (1943), Douglas mentions World War I poet
Isaac Rosenberg
Isaac Rosenberg (25 November 1890 – 1 April 1918) was an English poet and artist. His ''Poems from the Trenches'' are recognized as some of the most outstanding poetry written during the First World War.
Early life
Isaac Rosenberg was born ...
, claiming that he is only repeating what Rosenberg has already written.
Early life
Douglas was born in
Tunbridge Wells
Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...
,
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, the son of Capt. Keith Sholto Douglas,
MC (retired) and Marie Josephine Castellain.
His mother became unwell and collapsed in 1924 of
encephalitis lethargica
Encephalitis lethargica is an atypical form of encephalitis. Also known as "sleeping sickness" or "sleepy sickness" (distinct from tsetse fly-transmitted sleeping sickness), it was first described in 1917 by neurologist Constantin von Economo a ...
, never to fully recover. By 1926, the chicken farm business set up by his father had failed. Douglas was sent to
Edgeborough School, a
preparatory school in
Guildford
Guildford ()
is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...
, the same year. The family became increasingly poor, and his father had to leave home in early 1928 to seek better employment in
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
. The persistent ill-health of Marie led to the collapse of the marriage of his parents by the end of that year, and his father remarried in 1930. Douglas was deeply hurt by his father not communicating with him after 1928, and when Capt. Douglas did write at last in 1938, Keith did not agree to meet him. In one of his letters written in 1940 Douglas looked 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."
Education
Marie Douglas faced extreme financial distress, so much so that only the generosity of the Edgeborough headmaster Mr. James permitted Douglas to attend school in 1930–1931, his last year there. Douglas sat in 1931 for the entrance examination to
Christ's Hospital
Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 1553 ...
, where education was free and there was monetary assistance to cover all other costs. He was accepted, and joined Christ's Hospital, near
Horsham
Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...
, in September 1931, studying there till 1938. It was at this school that his considerable poetic talent and artistic ability were recognised. So was his cavalier attitude to authority and property, which nearly led to expulsion in 1935 over a purloined training rifle. In surprising contrast, he excelled as a member of the school's
Officers Training Corps
The Officers' Training Corps (OTC), more fully called the University Officers' Training Corps (UOTC), are military leadership training units operated by the British Army. Their focus is to develop the leadership abilities of their members whilst ...
, particularly enjoying drill, although he was philosophically opposed to militarism.
University
After his bruising brush with authority in 1935, Douglas settled down to a less troubled and more productive period at school, during which he excelled both at studies and games, and at the end of which he won an
open exhibition to
Merton College, Oxford
Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the Colleges of Oxford University, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the ...
, in 1938 to read
History
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
and
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
.
The
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
-veteran and well-known poet
Edmund Blunden
Edmund Charles Blunden (1 November 1896 – 20 January 1974) was an English poet, author, and critic. Like his friend Siegfried Sassoon, he wrote of his experiences in World War I in both verse and prose. For most of his career, Blunden was als ...
was his tutor at Merton,
and regarded his poetic talent highly. Blunden sent his poems to
T. S. Eliot, the doyen of English poetry, who found Douglas's verses 'impressive'. Douglas became the editor of ''
Cherwell'', and one of the poets anthologised in the collection ''Eight Oxford Poets'' (1941),
although by the time that volume appeared he was already in the army. He does not seem to have been acquainted with somewhat junior but contemporary Oxford poets such as
Sidney Keyes
Sidney Arthur Kilworth Keyes (27 May 1922 – 29 April 1943) was an English poet of World War II.
Life
Early years and education
Keyes was born on 27 May 1922. His mother died shortly afterwards and he was raised by his paternal grandparent ...
,
Drummond Allison
(John) Drummond Allison (1921 – 2 December 1943) was an English war poet of the Second World War.
He was born in Caterham, Surrey, and educated at Bishop's Stortford College and at Queen's College, Oxford. After training at the Royal Militar ...
,
John Heath-Stubbs
John Francis Alexander Heath-Stubbs (9 July 1918 – 26 December 2006) was an English poet and translator. He is known for verse influenced by classical myths, and for a long Arthurian poem, ''Artorius'' (1972).
Biography and works
Heath-Stub ...
and
Philip Larkin
Philip Arthur Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) was an English poet, novelist, and librarian. His first book of poetry, '' The North Ship'', was published in 1945, followed by two novels, '' Jill'' (1946) and '' A Girl in Winter'' (1 ...
, who would make names for themselves. At Oxford, he was good friends with
J. C. Hall who became his literary executor.
At Oxford, Douglas entered a relationship with a sophisticated
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
student named Yingcheng, or Betty Sze, the daughter of a diplomat. Her own sentiments towards him were less intense, and she refused to marry him. Yingcheng remained the unrequited love of Douglas's life and the source of his best romantic verse, despite his involvements with other women later, most notably Milena Guiterrez Penya.
Military service
![Tilly-sur-Seulles - CWGC 3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Tilly-sur-Seulles_-_CWGC_3.JPG)
Within days of the declaration of war he reported to an army recruiting centre with the intention of joining a
cavalry
Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from "cheval" meaning "horse") are soldiers or warriors who fight mounted on horseback. Cavalry were the most mobile of the combat arms, operating as light cavalry ...
regiment, but like many others keen to serve he had to wait, and it was not until July 1940 that he started his training. After attending the
Royal Military College, Sandhurst
The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infantry a ...
, he was commissioned on 1 February 1941 into the
2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry at
Ripon
Ripon () is a cathedral city in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city ...
. He was posted to the Middle East in July 1941 and transferred to the
Nottinghamshire (Sherwood Rangers) Yeomanry
The Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry (SRY) was a British Yeomanry regiment. In 1967 it was amalgamated with other units to form the Royal Yeomanry (RY), a light cavalry regiment of the Army Reserve (United Kingdom), Army Reserve. Originally raised as t ...
. Posted initially at
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
and
Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
, he found himself stuck at headquarters twenty miles behind
El Alamein
El Alamein ( ar, العلمين, translit=al-ʿAlamayn, lit=the two flags, ) is a town in the northern Matrouh Governorate of Egypt. Located on the Arab's Gulf, Mediterranean Sea, it lies west of Alexandria and northwest of Cairo. , it had ...
as a camouflage officer as the
Second Battle of El Alamein
The Second Battle of El Alamein (23 October – 11 November 1942) was a battle of the Second World War that took place near the Egyptian Railway station, railway halt of El Alamein. The First Battle of El Alamein and the Battle of Alam el Halfa ...
began. At dawn on 24 October 1942, the Regiment advanced, and suffered numerous casualties from enemy anti-tank guns. Chafing at inactivity, Douglas took off against orders on 27 October,
drove to the Regimental HQ in a truck, and reported to the C.O., Colonel
E. O. Kellett, lying that he had been instructed to go to the front (luckily this escapade did not land him in serious trouble; in a reprise of 1935, Douglas got off with an apology). Desperately needing officer replacements, the Colonel posted him to A Squadron, and gave him the opportunity to take part as a fighting tanker in the Eighth Army's victorious sweep through
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
, vividly recounted in his memoir ''Alamein to Zem Zem'', which was illustrated with his own drawings.
Death
Captain Douglas returned from North Africa to England in December 1943 and took part in the
D-Day
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...
invasion of
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
on 6 June 1944. On 9 June Douglas's armoured unit was pinned down on high ground overlooking
Tilly-sur-Seulles
Tilly-sur-Seulles (, literally ''Tilly on Seulles'') is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France.
Population
Events
Each year, the international motocross takes place.
See also
*Communes of the Cal ...
. Concerned by the lack of progress, Douglas dismounted his tank to undertake a personal reconnaissance during which he was killed by a German
mortar. The
regimental chaplain Captain Leslie Skinner buried him by a hedge, close to where he had died on "forward slopes point 102". Shortly after the war his remains were reburied at
Tilly-sur-Seulles War Cemetery (14 km south of Bayeux) in plot 1, row E, grave number 2.
Play
A one-man play about Douglas and his work, entitled ''Unicorns, almost'', written by
Owen Sheers
Owen Sheers (born 20 September 1974) is a Welsh poet, author, playwright and television presenter. He was the first writer in residence to be appointed by any national rugby union team.
Early life
Owen Sheers was born in Suva, Fiji in 1974, and b ...
, premiered at the
Hay Festival
The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts, better known as the Hay Festival ( cy, Gŵyl Y Gelli), is an annual literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales, for 10 days from May to June. Devised by Norman, Rhoda and Peter Florence in 1988, t ...
in May 2018.
Bibliography
*''Selected Poems'' (Keith Douglas,
J. C. Hall,
Norman Nicholson
Norman Cornthwaite Nicholson (8 January 1914 – 30 May 1987) was an English poet associated with the Cumbrian town of Millom. His poetry is noted for local concerns, straightforward language, and elements of common speech. Although known chief ...
) (1943)
*''
Alamein to Zem Zem'' (1946), reprinted 1966
*''Collected Poems'' (Editions Poetry London 1951),
reprinted 1966
*''Selected Poems'' (Faber 1964)
*''The Complete Poems'' (Faber and Faber 1978), reprinted in 1987, 1997, 2011
*
Alldritt, Keith. ''Modernism in the Second World War''
* ''The Letters of Keith Douglas'' edited by Desmond Graham (Carcanet Press, 2000)
Biography
*''Keith Douglas, 1920–1944'' by Desmond Graham (OUP, 1974)
References
External links
* Archival material at
{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas, Keith
1920 births
1944 deaths
Alumni of Merton College, Oxford
British Army personnel killed in World War II
People educated at Christ's Hospital
People from Royal Tunbridge Wells
Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst
Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry officers
World War II poets
20th-century male writers
People educated at Edgeborough School
20th-century English poets
Derbyshire Yeomanry officers
Burials at Tilly-sur-Seulles War Cemetery
Military personnel from Kent