Get the biggest stories sent straight to your inbox Sign up for regular updates and breaking news from WalesOnline Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Lost photos of a soldier who inspired First World War poets Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves have been uncovered by his old school.

David Cuthbert Thomas fought in the trenches alongside the celebrated poets and his death affected them more than any of their comrades. Thomas, the subject of some of Sassoon and Graves’ greatest war poems, was killed by a sniper at the Somme.

Unseen pictures of the 20-year-old soldier immortalised by his best friends have now been found by staff at his old school and are due to go on display.

The school photographs show the doomed face of youth – as schoolboy Thomas sits carefree just months before the outbreak of the war which would claim his life. They include him as young man in cricket, hockey and rugby teams.

The photographs were uncovered by his old school Christ College Brecon, in South Wales, in time for the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War.

School archivist Felicity Kilpatrick said: “Siegfried Sassoon and David Cuthbert Thomas became friends during training in Cambridge in 1915.

Pictures: The remarkable images that have been unearthed

“Some of Sassoon’s poems reference him as a cricketer, including in his poem ‘The Subaltern’ which was published just a week before Thomas was killed by a sniper’s bullet.

“Until now there have been no known photographs of him as a young sportsman so we are thrilled to be able to release these for the enjoyment of all those who are interested in David Cuthbert Thomas and Siegfried Sassoon.”

The young officer was killed by a German sniper’s bullet through the neck on the night of 18 March 1916 as he worked in No Man’s Land to repair barbed wire lines near Fricourt.

His great friend Sassoon wrote the next day: “Tonight I saw his shrouded form laid in the earth – Robert Graves beside me with his white whimsical face twisted and grieving.

“Once 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.

“So Tommy left us, a gentle soldier, perfect and without stain. And so he will remain in my heart, fresh and happy and brave.”

Graves said his death angered Sassoon so much he went out looking for Germans to kill.

In his celebrated war novel Goodbye To All That, he wrote: “I felt David’s 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.”

Thomas appeared throughout both poets’ memoirs and Graves wrote about him in his poems Goliath and David and Not Dead. Sassoon penned his poem A Subaltern about him just a week before he was killed.

The new photographs of Thomas have been released to the People’s Collection Wales website as part of their online collection about the history of Wales.

The website has recently been re-launched with more than 47,000 historical items to view online. Thomas’ first commission was as a Second Lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers.

That regiment also included the writers Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon, with whom he became close friends. He was then trained and posted to the same regiment’s 1st Battalion, which was then attached to 22 Brigade, itself part of 7th Infantry Division.

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