Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) was born in Shropshire, but the family moved to Merseyside when he was four. He began writing poetry at the age of 17, and after failing to attain entrance to the University of London spent a year as a lay assistant to a clergyman before going to France to teach English. He returned to England in September 1915 to enlist, and received his commission in the Manchester Rifles in June 1916, spending the rest of the year in training. He went to the trenches in France in January 1917, where he was caught in numerous explosions, and was evacuated back to Britain in June 1917 suffering from shell shock. It was while in hospital that Owen met Siegfried Sassoon who encouraged his writing, and also introduced him to Robert Graves and H.G Wells; and it was during this period that he wrote many of the poems for which he is remembered. In June 1918 he rejoined his regiment in Scarborough, and returned to France in August where he was awarded the Military Cross for bravery. Tragically, he was killed on the 4th November leading his men across the Sambre Canal at Ors. The news of his death reached his parents on November 11th 1918, the day of the armistice.