Wilfred Owen events launched with moving tribute at Shrewsbury Abbey

For those present also remembered that the poet’s nephew Peter Owen, who should have been helping host the launch of Wilfred Owen: The Last 100 Days, had died suddenly last week.

Mr Owen, President of the Wilfred Owen Association, was remembered with affection by so many who had worked with him to elevate the name and writing achievements of one of our great wartime poets. He who once summed up the tragedies of conflict as ‘war and the pity of war’.

For so many, that simply says so much.

And indeed on November 4, the 100th anniversary of Wilfred’s death, among the many tributes planned in the county for that day, will be The Pity of War concert at Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn.

While the weekend launch of these last days walking alongside the poet until the day his personal war ended in death, will surely fire the imagination.

From the Oswestry area where Wilfred Owen was born, to Shrewsbury where he also lived and which he loved, and right across the county, the cultural and commemorative events planned for these next three months are amazing.

And the Abbey launch honoured that, sent on its way by Lord Lieutenant Sir Algernon Heber-Percy, the Reverend Paul Firmin and many other notables and supporters as well as those who simply came to say ‘thank you’.

There were contributions from Shrewsbury’s Mayor, Councillor Peter Nutting, and Adrian Struve, author Helen McPhail, whose new book is Wilfred Owen’s Shrewsbury, as well as Monsieur Jacky Duminy, Mayor of Ors in France where Wilfred Owen is buried, having been killed in action just one week before the armistice was declared.

All spoke of the man and the times which led to the end of the war but during which in these later months, ‘the pity of war’ still loomed large. There was a special round of applause for local youngsters Eve Leslie and Alex Legge whose own readings during the ceremony were so moving and clearly came from the heart.

So now, there is the August to November calendar dedicated to remembering Shropshire’s poet and soldier 100 years since the end of the First World War – Lest we forget.

Go to www.shropshireremembers.org.uk for more information.