New plaque tribute to war poet Owen

A new plaque has been unveiled at the former home of world-renowned Shropshire World War One poet Wilfred Owen.

Members of the Wilfred Owen Association came from around the country to see the plaque, which has replaced a much smaller one, unveiled at the house, 69 Monkmoor Road, Shrewsbury, where he lived with his parents.

The association decided to install the plaque to make it easier for people to see and raise the profile of the poet, who was born in Plas Wilmot, Oswestry, in 1893 and died days before the end of the war, aged 25.

And members' efforts were rewarded when the current owners, who co-operated with the project, invited them in for a look at Owen's attic bedroom, where he is said to have written early poems inspired by views of The Wrekin.

Meg Crane, chairman of the association, said she had waited almost 40 years to see the room.

"I have been longing to see inside the room so it was very strange but less ghostly and haunting than I expected it to be," she said.

Owen lived at the house, called Mahim, periodically from 1910 until November 1918 when he was killed in action in Ors, France, five days before the guns fell silent on Armistice Day - the day news of his death reached his family in Shrewsbury.

About 25 people, including Owen's biographer Dominic Hibberd, Shrewsbury mayor and mayoress Alan and Judy Townsend together with Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski, attended the ceremony on Saturday afternoon.

Owen is widely regarded as the most important war poet of his generation for his stark and often harrowing portrayal of trench warfare.

There is a memorial to him in the grounds of Shrewsbury Abbey and a plaque in Oswestry's Broad Walk.

By Tom Johannsen