British poet Wilfred Owen was born in 1893 in Oswestry, Shropshire, England. He attended London University, but moved to France in 1913 to escape the harsh English winters, which were bad for his health. He secured a job in Bordeaux as a tutor for a wealthy family and wrote a poetry book, "Minor Poems", which he never published.

When World War I broke out he returned to England and enlisted in the army, being assigned to a unit called the Artists Rifles. However, his poor health resulted in his being invalided out in 1917. He spent four months in a military hospital in Scotland, where he met Siegfried Sassoon. Sassoon took the young Owen under his wing, and after reading some of his poems encouraged Owen to continue with his writing. His health began to improve, so he began to study and lecture in Edinburgh, took part in concerts there and edited the hospital's in-house magazine. He eventually got a job as a major-domo in a hotel where many officers from his old unit were staying. When his health had recovered sufficiently he tried to find a post in England, but the army sent him back to France as a commander of front-line troops. He saw combat and was awarded the Military Cross for "gallantry under fire" in October of 1918. However, the next month while leading his men in an attack across the Sabre River in France, he was shot and killed.

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Wilfred Owen

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