Sidney Arthur Kilworth Keyes was an English poet of World War II.
12 Facts About Sidney Keyes
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Sidney Keyes's mother died of peritonitis when he was six weeks old, and he was raised by his paternal grandparents.
3.
Sidney Keyes's grandfather, Sidney Kilworth Keyes, was a wealthy farmer and dominant figure in the family.
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Sidney Keyes started writing poetry when still very young, with Wordsworth, Rilke and Jung among his main influences.
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Sidney Keyes befriended fellow poets John Heath-Stubbs and Michael Meyer, edited The Cherwell magazine, and formed a dramatic society.
6.
The Iron Laurel was published during World War II in 1942, when Sidney Keyes was 20 years old.
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Sidney Keyes's poetry was published in the New Statesman, The Listener and other poetry journals.
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Sidney Keyes left Oxford and joined the British Army in April 1942, entering active service that same year.
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Sidney Keyes was commissioned in the Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment and served with his regiment's 1st Battalion, part of the 4th Division, to fight in the final stages of the Tunisian campaign in March 1943.
10.
Sidney Keyes was killed in action on 29 April 1943, covering his platoon's retreat during a counter-attack, shortly before his 21st birthday.
11.
In 1943, Sidney Keyes was awarded the Hawthornden Prize for The Cruel Solstice and The Iron Laurel.
12.
Sidney Keyes has been described as one of the outstanding poets of the Second World War.