Wilfred Owen

Oswestry’s Most Famous Son

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen was born at Plas Wilmot, a house on Weston Lane in Oswestry, on 18 March 1893. His father, Tom Owen, worked for the railways — first in Oswestry, then in Birkenhead and Shrewsbury as the family moved with his postings. His mother, Susan Shaw, was a devout woman of evangelical Protestant faith whose influence on her eldest son was profound and lasting. Wilfred was christened at St Oswald’s Church in Oswestry, the medieval parish church that still stands at the heart of the town, and the family remained in Oswestry until he was about four years old. The town retains a quiet pride in its most celebrated poet.

The family moved to Birkenhead in 1897 and later, in 1907, to Shrewsbury — and it was in Shrewsbury that Wilfred spent much of his adolescence and developed his early literary interests. He tried and failed to gain a scholarship to University College, Reading, in 1911, and instead went to France in 1913 as an English-language tutor near Bordeaux, remaining there until September 1915.

Enlisting

Owen enlisted in the Artists’ Rifles in October 1915 and was commissioned into the Manchester Regiment in June 1916. He arrived in France on New Year’s Day 1917, joining the 2nd Battalion of the Manchester Regiment on the Somme. His early weeks at the front were catastrophic in their psychological impact: he fell into a shell-hole and lay in it for several days in freezing conditions; he was blown into the air by a trench mortar; he spent time in a cellar with the remains of a fellow officer. By spring 1917 he was suffering from what was then called “shell-shock” — combat-related neurasthenia — and in June 1917 he was sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh for treatment.

Craiglockhart and Siegfried Sassoon

Craiglockhart changed everything. The hospital was run by the neurologist W. H. R. Rivers, who treated his patients through talk and creative activity rather than the punitive methods then common elsewhere. Owen’s ward doctor encouraged him to continue writing poetry. And it was at Craiglockhart, in August 1917, that Owen met Siegfried Sassoon.

Sassoon was by then already a published and celebrated war poet — his satirical anti-war verses had made him famous. He was at Craiglockhart having publicly refused to return to the front, a protest that would have resulted in a court martial had his superiors not chosen to treat it as breakdown. The relationship between the two men transformed Owen’s writing. Sassoon read Owen’s drafts, criticised them with precision, and encouraged the compressed, ironic power that Owen’s mature work possesses. Owen left Craiglockhart in October 1917 already carrying drafts of most of the poems for which he is now remembered.

The Poems

Owen published just five poems in his lifetime. He left behind approximately 80 complete and draft poems when he died. It was Sassoon who edited and published Poems in 1920, the collection that established Owen’s posthumous reputation. The introduction Owen drafted for the planned collection remains one of the most quoted statements in English war literature:

“My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity. Yet these elegies are to this generation in no sense consolatory. They may be to the next. All a poet can do today is warn.”

“Dulce et Decorum Est” (1917–18) is his most famous single poem. It describes a gas attack in brutal, exact, visceral detail — men stumbling through mud, a man drowning in a gas cloud, the speaker haunted by the face — and ends with a savage rejection of the Horatian tag “it is sweet and right to die for one’s country”, calling it “the old Lie”. The poem has been anthologised and reprinted thousands of times and remains one of the most widely read poems in English.

“Anthem for Doomed Youth” is a sonnet of mourning — the octave a cacophony of guns and rifles serving as the “passing bells” for those who die “as cattle”; the sestet a quiet elegy for the private grief left behind. Sassoon helped revise it at Craiglockhart.

“Strange Meeting” describes a visionary encounter in Hell between the speaker and an enemy soldier he has killed — a dialogue on the futility of war, ending in recognition and fellowship across the divide of enmity. “Futility”, “Mental Cases”, “Disabled”, and “Exposure” complete the essential Owen canon. Benjamin Britten set several of them in his War Requiem (1962), interleaving Owen’s English texts with the Latin mass — one of the major works of 20th-century choral music.

Return to France and Death

Owen returned to the Western Front in August 1918, having could have remained in England but chose to go back. In October 1918 he was awarded the Military Cross for his leadership and bravery at Joncourt. On 4 November 1918, one week before the Armistice, he was killed leading his men across the Sambre-Oise Canal near Ors, in northern France. He was 25 years old.

The telegram informing his parents of his death arrived at the family home in Shrewsbury on 11 November 1918 — as the church bells were ringing to mark the Armistice. Tom and Susan Owen stood at the window and listened to the bells. His mother, to whom he had been especially close and to whom many of his letters are addressed, never fully recovered from his death.

Owen in Oswestry Today

Owen’s connection to Oswestry is commemorated in several ways. St Oswald’s Church, where he was christened, contains a memorial plaque; the church itself is worth visiting for its medieval architecture and atmosphere. The Wilfred Owen Association, based in Shrewsbury, coordinates research and commemoration, including the annual Wilfred Owen Festival held in Oswestry each year with theatrical performances, poetry readings, and musical events across multiple venues. The festival brings together writers, academics, performers, and members of the public in a commemoration that is as much celebration of poetry as it is mourning for a lost generation.

The house where Owen was born, Plas Wilmot, no longer stands. But the town he was born in — its church, its market square, its border-country character — remains, and for those who care about English poetry, walking Oswestry with Owen in mind gives the town an additional resonance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Was Wilfred Owen born in Oswestry?

Yes. Wilfred Owen was born on 18 March 1893 at Plas Wilmot, Weston Lane, Oswestry, Shropshire. He was christened at St Oswald's Church in the town. The family left Oswestry when Wilfred was about four years old.

How did Wilfred Owen die?

Wilfred Owen was killed in action on 4 November 1918, one week before the Armistice, while leading his platoon across the Sambre-Oise Canal at Ors in northern France. He was 25 years old. His mother received the telegram announcing his death on Armistice Day, 11 November 1918.

What are Wilfred Owen's most famous poems?

Owen's best-known poems include Dulce et Decorum Est, Anthem for Doomed Youth, and Strange Meeting. All were written or revised during his time at Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh in 1917, under the mentorship of Siegfried Sassoon.

Is there a memorial to Wilfred Owen in Oswestry?

Yes. A memorial plaque in St Oswald's Church, Oswestry — where his parents married and he was christened — commemorates him. The annual Wilfred Owen Festival celebrates his life and work each autumn with events at venues across the town.