Wilfred Owen 100 100 days of cultural commemorative events across Shropshire August – November 2018 remembering Shropshire’s poet and soldier 100 years since the end of the First World War www.shropshireremembers.org.uk WilfredOwen100Shropshire @wilfredowen100 Image used by kind permission from Bodleian Libraries, The University of Oxford collections item 5026 1 Wilfred Owen 100 Remembering Shropshire War Poet Wilfred Owen 100 years on November 4th this year marks the centenary of the day that Shropshire poet and soldier, Wilfred Owen, fell in battle in 1918, the last year of the First World War. This important anniversary will be marked in his home county by a series of events over the last 100 days from 4th August to the centenary of the Armistice on 11th November. Details can be found in this brochure together with ideas of related places that can be visited during the period. Wilfred Owen was born in 1893 at Plas Wilmot near Oswestry and lived in Birkenhead and Shrewsbury, where his mother received news of his death as the bells were ringing out on Armistice Day. He served as a Lieutenant in the 2nd Manchester Regiment, winning the Military Cross for bravery in action. His poetry is now widely regarded as among the best to be inspired by the horrors of the Great War. Today two volumes of his hand-written verse are to be found in the vaults of the British Library alongside the greatest writers in the English language such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Jane Austen and Lennon & McCartney. Over the last three years Shropshire communities have been working in partnership to deliver an extensive and ambitious programme of heritage and arts activities to commemorate the centenary of the First World War, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council, England. This programme will conclude in a large-scale commemoration this year of the 100th anniversary of Wilfred Owen’s death. With a focus on Shrewsbury and Oswestry, Shropshire’s Wilfred Owen 100 will remember him with poetry readings, film screenings, music, talks, new artworks, themed guided walks and much more. Events will reflect on the emotion, exhibitions, installations and projects from the 2014 – 2018 commemorative period and celebrate one of Shropshire’s most renowned sons. @WilfredOwen100 WilfredOwen100Shropshire 2 Wilfred Owen – Soldier Poet Wilfred Owen 100 Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) – who was born in Oswestry on the Welsh borders and brought up in Birkenhead and Shrewsbury – is widely recognised as one Remembering Shropshire War Poet Wilfred Owen of the greatest voices of the First World War. At the time of his death he was virtually unknown – only four of his poems were published during his lifetime 100 years on – but he had always been determined to be a poet and had experimented with verse from an early age. In 1913-1915, whilst teaching at Bordeaux and Bagnères-de-Bigorre in France, he worked on the rhyming patterns which became characteristic of his poetry; but it was not until the summer of 1917 that he found his true voice. In 1915 Owen enlisted in the British Army. His first experiences of active service at Serre and St. Quentin in January-April 1917 led to shell-shock and his return to Britain. Whilst he was undergoing treatment at the Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh, he met one of his literary heroes, Siegfried Sassoon, who provided him with guidance and encouragement to bring his war experiences into his poetry. When Owen returned to the Western Front, after more than a year away, he took part in the breaking of the Hindenburg Line at Joncourt (October 1918) for which he was awarded the Military Cross in recognition of his courage and leadership. He was killed on 4th November 1918 during the battle to cross the Sambre-Oise canal at Ors. Virtually all the poems for which he is now remembered were written in a creative burst between August 1917 and September 1918. His self-appointed task was to speak for the men in his care, to show the 'Pity of War', which he also expressed in vivid letters home. His bleak realism, his energy and indignation, his compassion and his great technical skill are evident in many well-known poems, and phrases or lines from his work ("Each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds" … "The Old Lie: Dulce et decorum est …") are frequently quoted. Wilfred Owen's reputation has grown steadily, helped over the years by Edmund Blunden's edition with a biographical memoir in 1931, and by later editions, biographies and critical analyses by Cecil Day Lewis, Jon Stallworthy, Dominic Hibberd and others. Modern scholarship regards Owen's work as the most significant poetry to come out of the 1914-1918 war years and his influence on later generations of poets and readers is widely acknowledged. In 1961 several of his poems were included in Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. With thanks to The Wilfred Owen Association for use of this biography. 3 Discover Wilfred Owen and the First World War in Shropshire In addition to all the special events in Shropshire listed in this brochure, there are a number of permanent reminders of Wilfred Owen’s life in Shropshire and the First World War that may be visited. Please check opening times before you visit. Wilfred Owen Walks Oswestry The Wilfred Owen Town Trail will take To discover many of the places 1½-2 hours to complete. It starts at the associated with Wilfred Owen in Oswestry railway station where Owen’s Oswestry and Shrewsbury download the father, Tom, worked and finishes near self-guided walks brochures and set off Plas Wilmot, the house in which Owen on your own journey through his life and was born on 18th March 1893. times. For the full range of First World War walks around Shropshire visit: Download the Town Trail here: tinyurl. shropshiresgreatoutdoors.co.uk/ com/OswestryOwenTrail. Copies may walking/war-walks be purchased at the Oswestry Visitor & Exhibition Centre in Church Terrace. Park Hall Trenches Photo: Mark Hignett 4 RAF Museum, Cosford Shrewsbury Shropshire Regimental Museum, Devised by Keith Pybus the ‘Tracks to Shrewsbury Castle the Trenches’ walk is about 3 miles in The Great Hall is home of Shropshire length and starts at the town’s impressive regimental history with a significant WWI railway station, another of Tom Owen’s gallery of photos, uniforms and weapons. workplaces. It will lead you to the home www.shropshireregimentalmuseum.co.uk of Owen's parents, where the fateful telegram was received on Armistice Shrewsbury Museum & Day, informing them of Wilfred’s death, Art Gallery and on to the Abbey, where there are The collections include a newly acquired two memorials, including Symmetry. bust of Wilfred Owen by sculptor Download the ‘Tracks To The Trenches’ Anthony Padgett. See the Wilfred Owen leaflet here: information panels in the shut. tinyurl.com/TracksToTheTrenches www.shrewsburymuseum.org.uk Places to Visit The RAF Museum, Cosford Park Hall – The Countryside In the RAF’s centenary year the Museum Experience, near Oswestry is putting on special exhibitions and Alongside the family attractions and many enhancing its displays of historic aircraft, animals, are the Welsh Guards Collection including The First World War in the with over 100 years of regimental history, Air, which features two replica and one together with a range of replica trenches original aircraft from the Sopwith and to show what conditions were like for the Bristol designs soldiers fighting on the Western Front. www.rafmuseum.org.uk/cosford www.parkhallfarm.co.uk/museums/ trenches-through-the-ages www.welshguardscollection.com 5 Events throughout the 100 days Early Aug – Late Oct Strange Meeting – An exhibition trail across Shropshire of 14 Denis May prints referencing a Wilfred Owen poem All 14 prints will be together in November at the Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery Early Aug – Nov See advert, p10 Putty Medals – Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival First World War humour The Parade, Shrewsbury SY1 1DL Facebook: Putty Medals WO100 for other venues One Name One Voice Shropshire World War One Roll of Honour Pop-up Sound Installation fb.me/onov1418 15 Sept – 17 Nov Artists' Trail on the theme of war and conflict, Oswestry STRANGE MEETING 14 Prints by DENIS MAY A Shropshire Exhibition Trail from August to October 2018 Curated by Shrewsbury Heritage Oswestry Museum SY11 1PZ St Mary’s Church, Shrewsbury SY1 1EF The Dead Beat Smile, Smile, Smile Park Hall SY11 4AS Vision Gallery, Darwin Shopping Centre SY1 1PL The Letter The Send-Off Willow Gallery SY11 1AD The Abbey, Shrewsbury SY2 6BS Spring Offensive Strange Meeting Oswestry Library SY11 1JN The Gateway, Shrewsbury SY1 1NB The Chances At a Calvary near the Ancre Oswestry Visitor & Exhibition Centre SY11 2TE Theatre Severn SY3 8FT Anthem for Doomed Youth Futility Oswestry Cricket Club, SY11 2AY Dulce Et Decorum Est These prints will be in Tanners Window, Shrewsbury SY1 Oswestry Parish Church SY11 2SY 1XD, Friday August 24 – Friday September 7 The Unreturning British Iron Works SY11 4JH Asleep Shrewsbury Regimental Museum SY1 2AT The Last laugh 6 Events outside the 100 days 26 April – 2 Sept Eyewitness – Champions of Flight RAF Museum, Cosford 01939 238272 • mediaactive.org 3 – 18 July FRACTURE – Exhibition Qube, Oswestry 01691 656882 • qube-oca.org.uk July 8 Owen's Shrewsbury Wilfred's life in and around Shrewsbury as told by Keith Pybus on a 2.5 mile guided walk of Haughmond Hill. Assemble at the Forestry Commission car park. 1.30pm • £5 01743 709644 • [email protected] The Forester's House in Ors, has been transformed into a National Monument. Owen's poems are projected onto all four walls and etched inside the house.