Dorchester War Poetry Conference 2025

The Dorchester War Poetry Conference 2025 was a great success.

The Thomas Hardy Society teamed up with the T.E. Lawrence Society, Siegfried Sassoon Fellowship and the Edward Thomas Fellowship for a `Weekend to Remember'.

The weekend provided guests with an exciting cornucopia of talks, poetry readings, tours, displays and performance.

On Saturday, we enjoyed an overview of What is War Poetry? given by THS Chair & Academic Director, Mark Chutter. This was followed by an informative talk from military historian Chris Copson on the build up and background to the First World War. Presentations and poetry readings from each of the societies then followed, which included recordings from Siegfried Sassoon reading some of his own poems.

The Dorset History Centre opened especially to provide private viewings of some of the manuscripts and documents relative to Hardy's war poetry and his friendships and connections to the war poets of WW1 and Chris Copson gave a tour of The Keep's grounds, describing the military activities that took place there over the years.

The afternoon ended with an informative and entertaining plenary discussion.

The evening concert Remembrance: War, Words and English Song provided the perfect finish to a very enjoyable but poignant day.

Dr Natalie Burton brought together the words of First World War poets and Thomas Hardy with English song composers of the early twentieth century, echoing the lived experiences of composers and poets affected by the Great War.

Composers and poets who were killed in action, such as George Butterworth, Wilfred Owen, Edward Thomas and Arthur Graeme West; composers and poets who wrote as they fought in the trenches, such as Ivor Gurney and Siegfried Sassoon; Poets and composers that worried for and grieved lost loved ones from home, such as Katharine Tynan and Gerald Finzi; poets and composers who advocated for peace, explicitly like Thomas Hardy or implicitly like John Ireland, were all given voice through words and song.

Dr Natalie Burton and THS Chair & Academic Director, Mark Chutter, gave readings, Peter Oakes played piano and Colin Howard (tenor) & Stefan Oakes (baritone) provided vocals. The striking church of St Mary The Virgin, Dorchester, whose building was completed just before the outbreak of World War I, provided a fitting venue for this intimate, reflective occasion.

On Sunday, the conference continued at the King's Arms. The Casterbridge Room provided a good base for the day's activities, which included a very informative exhibition and talk by local historian Brian Bates on Dorchester during WW1. Wreaths were laid at the War Memorial in South Street during the Remembrance Parade and at the Prisoner of War Memorial at Fordington. A delicious group lunch was enjoyed at the King's Arms and then our talented THS Student Shaun Higgins gave an extremely moving performance of "Strange Meeting", a one-man show he wrote and performs using the words of Wilfred Owen. A powerful finish to the Dorchester War Poetry Conference.