text: Cad: Poet Rupert Brooke had a string of short-lived relationships with various women before he died aged 27 in April 1915 . Poet Rupert Brooke has long had a reputation as a 'young Apollo', a symbol of innocent youth who was cut down in his prime during the senseless slaughter of the First World War. But a new haul of previously unseen letters show that he was in fact a slightly caddish womaniser who had a string of affairs without ever settling down. The documents, brought to light for the first time thanks to a £430,000 grant, show Brooke's lovers complaining about his refusal to take their relationships seriously. The letters are part of the John Schroder collection, which has spent decades in private hands but will now be available to the public after being bought by King's College, Cambridge, where the poet was a student. Brooke, who died 100 years ago today at the age of just 27, became a semi-legendary figure thanks to his early death and his popular poems such as The Soldier. His obituary was written by Winston Churchill, who called him 'all that one would wish England's noblest sons to be'. However, the letters in the Schroder collection - including 170 documents written by Brooke himself - show a somewhat different side to the great poet. King's archivist Patricia McGuire said that Brooke was 'promiscuous even for a man of his time' and carried on relationships with multiple girlfriends. 'Several women thought he was going to marry them - he may have thought that he was going to,' Dr McGuire told The Times. 'I think he was happy to spend a lot of time with as many women as he could.' Among the lovers whose affairs with Brooke are featured in the letters are Hollywood star Cathleen Nesbitt, artist Phyllis Gardner, and Laurence Olivier's cousin Noël. Lovers: Cathleen Nesbitt, left, and Phyllis Gardner, right, are among the women who had affairs with Brooke . Popular: Brooke became one of Britain's best-loved poets after his premature death . Nesbitt wrote to Eddie Marsh, Brooke's biographer, saying: 'I've no intention of marrying anybody for years to come - nor, I hope, has Rupert - though I shouldn't be in the least surprised if he settled in the wild with a squaw and a wigwam.' In another letter, she described the poet's care-free attitude in the face of the danger he submitted himself to in the war. Nesbitt wrote: 'When I talked of all things coming to an end he would always laugh and say, "Hush - there's never any end when things are perfect."' This is not the first time that Brooke's reputation has taken a battering - previously discovered letters have shown him expressing unpalatable views on Jews and homosexuals. And this year a book about his affair with Phyllis Gardner revealed that he opposed the women's rights movements and privately said that 'all women are beasts'. The pair bathed naked together near Grantchester, the village outside Cambridge where Brooke lived in the Old Vicarage, now home to Jeffrey Archer. Trove: Peter Jones of King's College, Cambridge with a haul of letters which the college has now bought thanks to a £430,000 grant . Home: The Old Vicarage in Grantchester, Cambridgeshire, where Brooke once lived . If I should die, think only this of me: . That there's some corner of a foreign field . That is forever England. There shall be . In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; . A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, . Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam, . A body of England's, breathing English air, . Washed by the rivers, blest by the suns of home. And think, this heart, all evil shed away, . A pulse in the eternal mind, no less . Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given; . Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; . And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness, . In hearts at peace, under an English heaven. Despite the recent revelations, Brooke has retained his image as a 'young Apollo' cut down in his prime, whose poems encapsulate typically English scenes. His poem The Soldier, featuring the line 'there's some corner of a foreign field that is forever England', was immensely popular during the First World War, and made even more poignant when Brooke himself died while on active service on April 23, 1915. Churchill wrote in his obituary, published in The Times: 'He was all that one would wish England's noblest sons to be in the days when no sacrifice but the most precious is acceptable, and the most precious is that which is most freely proffered.' Peter Jones, the librarian at King's, said: 'It is hard to realise today just how significant Brooke's impact was 100 years ago. 'In the early 20th century as a poet you were fortunate to sell 200-300 copies of your work. Just after his death, Brooke's close friend and patron Eddie Marsh published 1914 and Other Poems. 'The first edition of 1,000 sold out immediately and, in all, 160,000 copies were sold of various impressions.' He added: 'We now know much more about Brooke as a person and he is certainly more interesting and, in some ways more difficult, than the heroic image portrayed at the time of his death. 'He was a conflicted individual. He had a major breakdown in 1912 and had disastrous relationships with the women who loved him.' One of the letters now made available reveals how Brooke's mother Mary Ruth sought to avoid turning her son into an icon, and also intervened to stop Marsh inserting details of his more sordid relationships. Lorna Beckett, chairman of the Rupert Brooke Society, said: 'He was an interesting, complex and likeable person who is still suffering from the hostile backlash brought about by the "young Apollo" myth created straight after his death.'
target: The poet has a reputation as a 'young Apollo' who died tragically young .
  New letters reveal he had a string of brief relationships with women .
  Lover Cathleen Nesbitt suggested that he could 'settle in the wild'
  Brooke was mourned by the nation and celebrated by Churchill when he died 100 years ago today .