Wilfred Owen Memorial
On Sunday I had the privilege of attending the Memorial Service in the Abbey.
In addition to the customary remembrance service, this occasion marked the 90th anniversary of the death of the poet Wilfred Owen. We heard how the news of his death was brought to his parents in Monkmoor road even as the Abbey church bells rang out to celebrate the ending of the war. Wilfred Owen died and is buried in France, and is remembered by the people of both countries. A party from the village of Ors were present and the Mayor of Ors, and Peter Owen, the poet's nephew, laid flowers on the Wilfred Owen memorial in the Abbey grounds.
The rain stopped as we left the church and listened to poems read both in English and in the French translation by Xavier Hanotte.
I was introduced to the great war poets including Wilfred Owen by an enlightened English teacher when I was at the Priory School. In those days the Boys Priory was in the buildings by the river that we now know as Shrewsbury Sixth Form College. I have been moved by Wilfred Owen's poetry ever since. Clearly on Sunday, I was not the only one to be moved.
