UNSEEN manuscripts by First World War poet and Oxford University lecturer Edmund Blunden have been made available on the Internet.

The Edmund Blunden Collection contains material assembled from archives in the UK and the US, including his family’s private collection.

The collection, part of Oxford University's First World War Poetry Digital Archive, contains extracts from the writer's Minute Book, a private scrapbook he compiled after the war.

Previously unpublished poems and letters sent home to his family while he was on active service have also been included.

The poet’s daughter Margi Blunden, 63, said she was delighted the information was going online and hoped it would help readers understand her father's work, including his autobiography Undertones of War.

She said: “My father was an English lecturer at Merton College from 1931 until 1945.

“We are very pleased the digital archive is including my father’s work as it gives him a much-deserved profile that has been lacking for many years.

“Initially my father lived in college rooms in Fellows Quad at Merton, but then he married Sylva Norman and they moved to a flat in Woodstock Close.

“During his time at Oxford he taught a number of pupils who went on to be quite well known, including the Second World War poet Keith Douglas.”

Ms Blunden is the eldest daughter from Mr Blunden’s third marriage to Claire Poynting.

Her father was 50 when she was born.

She added: “I sometimes marvel that my father fought in the First World War. Seeing the original manuscripts in this way is a moving experience and we think it will greatly enhance the students' reading of both Undertones of War and his war poetry.

“It will also help readers to understand his long war experience of nearly two years at the front.”

The poet, who died in 1974 at the age of 77, was sent to the Western Front in 1916, where he served with the 11th Royal Sussex Regiment.

He was awarded the Military Cross for his actions during the Battle of the Somme.

He later worked as an editor, journalist, critic, and biographer, and became Oxford Professor of Poetry in 1966.

Oxford University researcher Alun Edwards said: “Previously, to see these manuscripts you would have had to travel to the University of Texas, and the items held by the family have remained private to all but the most trusted academic researchers.”

The digital archive includes 12,000 previously unseen pieces of material, including work by Wilfred Owen, Vera Brittain and Isaac Rosenberg.