A century on, war poets follow in Owen’s footsteps

THE bravery, patriotism, horror and sacrifice of war stirred a generation of poets a century ago.

Now the likes of Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Rupert Brooke have inspired modernday wordsmiths.

Five who used their family’s experiences of war, or their personal reflections on it, to pen a verse have reached the final of the A Poem To Remember competition launched by Prince William and we’re publishing their poems here.

Debbie Lawson, a nurse who has worked with traumatised veterans, had not written poetry since her youth and Edward Rogers started writing only two years ago, while Peter De Ville has had two collections of verse published.

Julia Read’s great uncle died near the end of the First World War. Julie Stamp’s father served in the Territorial Army and was an amateur artist specialising in warplanes.

The contest is to mark the opening of a £300million centre for wounded military personnel and the finalists were selected from more than 5,000 entrants who took up the challenge to write a work that reflects on ‘humankind’s ability to triumph over adversity’.

A public vote opens today to choose the winning poem. It will be read by Prince William at the new Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre (DNRC) at Stanford Hall near Loughborough, Leicestershire, this summer and will be installed permanently there.

Launching the competition in February, William – a patron of the centre – said the centenary of the end of the First World War was an appropriate year for such a prize and he, like countless others has ‘always been moved by sentiments invoked by the brave young soldiers.’

The DNRC is the brainchild of the sixth Duke of Westminster, who died in 2016. Yesterday his son-in-law, historian and broadcaster Dan Snow – who chaired a judges’ panel that included Stephen Fry and novelist Andy McNab – said: ‘We’ve got a chance here to place a poem right at the heart of this national institution, the DNRC, which is going to heal our wounded and look after those who have been terribly afflicted in the war zone for generations to come.’

The winning poet will receive £2,000, the four runners-up £500. To vote for your favourite from the five poems published here, go to www. poemtoremember.co.uk by June 9.

‘Bravery of young soldiers’