... was born in 1893 in his grandfather's house in Oswestry. After his grandfather's death in January 1897, the house was sold and Wilfred's immediate family moved to Birkenhead. Three months later they moved to Shrewsbury, but in 1898 they returned to Birkenhead. In 1907, when Wilfred was 14, they moved back to Shrewsbury, and Wilfred finished his education there.
He joined the army in October 1915, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in June 1916. He was 25 years old when he was tragically killed just a week before the armistice.
An abstract memorial sculpture to Wilfred Owen was erected in 1993 in the grounds of Shrewsbury Abbey. In 2013, he was one of three 'local heroes' to whom statues were erected in Shrewsbury. The others were Martin Wood, a former town crier, and Sabrina, the goddess of the River Severn. In April 2017 it was announced that a memorial statue of Wilfred Owen was to be erected in Oswestry.
© Haydn Thompson 2017