The Wilfred Owen Association
Richard Cavendish visits the society dedicated to the tragic Great War poet.
Lieutenant Wilfred Owen MC was killed in action on the bank of the Sambre Canal in Flanders on November 4th, 1918. He was twenty-five years old, and the Great War was almost over. Exactly a week later, when the church bells were ringing joyfully in Shrewsbury to celebrate the Armistice, the long-dreaded telegram arrived at his parents' house.
This year, which sees the 75th anniversary of that dreadful moment, and also the centenary of Owen's birth (March 18th, 1893), is the year which the Wilfred Owen Association has been working towards. The Association has focused attention on the poet with many events around the country, the placing of a plaque to mark his birthplace in Oswestry and, nearest to its heart, the unveiling of a monument to him in the graveyard of the abbey church in Shrewsbury. The monument is an unprepossessing, low-lying modernistic object, suggesting a cross between an uncomfortable park seat and an unseaworthy catamaran, but it comes with love and inscribed on it is a line from one of Owen's best poems ('Strange Meeting'): 'I am the enemy you killed, my friend.'
To continue reading this article you need to purchase a subscription, available from only £5.
Start my trial subscription now
If you have already purchased access, or are a print & archive subscriber, please ensure you are logged in.
Please email digital@historytoday.com if you have any problems.
