The Wilfred Owen Association
The Wilfred Owen Association
Born Plas Wilmot, Oswestry.
Family moves to Birkenhead.
Family moves to Shrewsbury.
Wilfred becomes a lay assistant at Dunsden.
Leaves Dunsden and returns home ill.
To Bordeaux, France to teach English in the Berlitz School.
Tutoring in a family at Bagneres de Bigorre, in the Pyrenees.
Meets French poet Laurent Tailhade
Tutoring in an English family in Bordeaux.
Back to France after a brief visit home.
Returns to England and enlists in 3/28th London Regiment which shortly afterwards became the 2nd Artists Rifles Officers Training Corps.
Commissioned into the Manchester Regiment.
Reports to 5th (Reserve) Bn. Manchester Regiment at Milford Camp, Near Witley. With friend 2/Lt Gregg devises improvement to gas mask.
Arrives at Talavera Barracks, Aldershot where he is attached to 25th Bn.Middlesex Regt.
(C.O. Lieutenant-Colonel John Ward M.P.) for a Musketry Course at Mychett Camp, Farnborough. The course ends and he is classified "1st Class Shot".
Returns to Witley Camp.
Official end to Battle of Somme.
2nd Manchesters leave Somme battlefield down to 156 officers and men.
To Southport. In rooms at 168a Lord Street, Southport.
To Fleetwood. Takes command of a firing range party. Lodges at 111 Bold Street, Fleetwood.
Back in Southport. Takes charge of Musketry Party on the range at Crossens, nr Southport.
Embarkation leave.
Folkestone. In transit to join 2nd Manchesters.
Arrives in France, thence to the notorious Infantry Base Depot at Etaples and later to 2nd Manchesters as an Officer reinforcement.
Into the front line at Serre in charge of "A" Company.
Takes half of his platoon and occupies a former German bunker in No Man's Land and posts a sentry who during a bombardment is blinded. (This incident became the subject of "The Sentry").
Transport Course at Abbeville.
Rejoins the battalion in the line near Le Quesnoy en Santerre.
Suffers concussion following a fall.
Arrives at No.13 Casualty Clearing Station at Gailly.
Rejoins battalion near Manchester Hill, Selency.
In and out of the line at Savy Wood and in the attack on Dancour trench, St Quentin.
The C.O., Lieutenant-Colonel Luxmoore, notices that Owen is unwell. Evacuated to No.13 CCS with shell shock.
To Netley Hospital, Hampshire.
Arrives Craiglockhart War Hospital, Edinburgh.
Meets Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves.
Writes "Anthem for Doomed Youth" and "Dulce et Decorum Est".
After leave, is posted to 5th (Reserve) Bn. Manchesters at Scarborough. Acts as mess secretary at Clarence Gardens Hotel (Now Clifton Hotel).
Attends Robert Graves' wedding.
To Northern Command, Ripon. Rents lodgings in Borage (Borrage) Lane.
Passed fit for service and joins 5th Manchesters in Scarborough.
Sees Siegfried Sassoon, wounded in hospital.
Returns to France.
Again posted to 2nd Manchesters as an officer reinforcement.
In the Brigade attack on the Beaurevoir-Fonsomme Line at Joncourt. Recommended for M.C.
2nd Manchesters take over the line west of the Sambre-Oise canal, near Ors.
Writes to his mother from the cellar of the Maison Forestiere (Forester's House) at Pommereuil.
Killed in action on the banks of the Sambre-Oise canal.
News of his death reaches Shrewsbury.
Publication of seven poems in "Wheels".
Publication of "Poems of Wilfred Owen", with an introduction by Siegfried Sassoon.
Completion by Edmund Blunden of the editing of Owen's poems.
Compiled by Philip Guest, Vice-President of the Wilfred Owen Association