War poet's last love letter sent from Gallipoli

So the First World War poet picked up his pen and wrote a poignant letter to the love of his life predicting his death.

Dated March 18, from "Off Gallipoli", and addressed to the actress Cathleen Nesbitt, it read: "Oh my dear, Life is a very good thing. Thank God I met you. Be happy &be good. You have been good to me. Goodbye, dearest child - Rupert."

The letter predicted the war poet's death on the way to Gallipoli

On his way to the Battle of Gallipoli, Brooke contracted blood poisoning from a mosquito bite on his lip and died on April 23, 1915 - two days before the landings. He was 27.

The 82 love letters written by Brooke to Miss Nesbitt during their two-year romance were auctioned at Christie's in London.

The revealing letters - bound in a large red leather volume - show the depth of Brooke's passion for the actress.

One reads: "Haven't you noticed your chin and neck are the most beautiful thing in the world?

"Haven't you heard about your hair? Has nobody told you about your eyes?

"Haven't you read in the papers that your lips are maddening?"

During his travels around the South Pacific, he wrote: 'My life's been getting madder and madder.

"I tumbled into Fiji without a friend or an introduction: and left it a month later amidst the loud grief of the united population, white and black."

During this time, Brooke is believed to have fathered a child with a Tahitian islander - something not mentioned in the letters.

Cathleen Nesbitt went on to become a respected Broadway actress, appearing in the stage productions of My Fair Lady and Gigi, and the film An Affair to Remember. She was awarded the CBE in 1978 and died four years later, aged 93.

Brooke was already considered a promising young poet when Britain entered the war but his reputation rests largely on six "war sonnets" published after his death.

He is best remembered for The Soldier, which begins: "If I should die, think only this of me:/ That there's some corner of a foreign field/ That is for ever England."

The disastrous Gallipoli campaign eventually claimed 36,000 Commonwealth troops.

The letters had been expected to sell for up to £180,000 but they failed to find a buyer after bidding stopped at £65,000.