大象传媒

People often imagine Wilfred Owen wrote his famous poems in the trenches: he didn鈥檛. The author, Joanne Harris, says,鈥渉e wrote almost all of them in Yorkshire.鈥�

But why wasn鈥檛 he in France?

The view from Wilfred Owen's hotel window.

Joanne Harris told the 大象传媒's Inside Out programme for Yorkshire & Lincolnshire, 鈥淲ilfred Owen鈥檚 war records show he arrived on the Western Front in 1917, in one of the coldest winters in memory. But after four months on the frontline, and at a time of intense fighting, he was posted to Scarborough.

鈥淧apers from the time suggest Scarborough in WW1 was a busy town, the target of two notorious enemy bombardments. Owen鈥檚 regiment had taken on coastal guard duties as well as recruit training, and - more significantly for Wilfred Owen - the re-training of convalescents.

鈥淲ilfred Owen was in Scarborough to convalesce. He鈥檇 left France suffering from shellshock.

Joanne Harris in attic where Wilfred Owen wrote.

鈥淗e lived in the old Clarence Gardens Hotel. According to his records he stayed in Scarborough only five months. He was then posted to Ripon.

鈥淗e spent his last birthday in Ripon Cathedral, knowing he was going back to the trenches, the very place which had made him lose his mind.鈥�

Wilfred Owen was killed leading his men in an attack across a canal on November 4th 1918. His mother received the telegram a week later, just as the church bells were ringing to celebrate the armistice and the end of the war.