First World War poet's manuscripts online

" Oxford University puts unseen First World War poet's manuscripts online "

Rare and unseen manuscripts from the First World War poet Edmund Blunden are being put online by Oxford University.

They include 17 poems that Blunden, a friend of Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves and Wilfred Owen, wrote during his three years of service. Also available to see online will be extracts from his trench diary and his 'Minute Book', which he started to assemble after 1918 to record and illustrate his experiences.

Alun Edwards, a researcher for the university's First World War Poetry Digital Archive, said: "Previously, to see these manuscripts you would have had to travel to the US to the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin - and the items held by the family have remained private to all but the most trusted academic researchers."

Blunden was the longest serving of the war poets. He joined the 11th Royal Sussex Regiment in spring 1916, spending in total two years on the front line until the end of the war.