Wilfred Owen to be honoured with bronze bust in Shrewsbury

The artwork is likely to be given a prominent place in Shrewsbury, allowing visitors the chance to learn about his link to the town.

Lieutenant Owen's parents were living in Shrewsbury when news came through of his death in the First World War.

Sculptor Anthony Padgett has offered to donate his work to the town. The town council is now to discuss how it should be shown off.

The work was created by Mr Padgett, with the full approval of the Wilfred Owen Association, during his artist's residency at the Museum of Lancashire.

He said: "It is important for me to have the honour of having the work sited in such an appropriate location."

It was to his parents' home in Shrewsbury where the telegram arrived telling the news that Lieutenant Owen had been killed while battling on the front line.

The town council is set to discuss Mr Padgett's offer next week, and town and county councillor Andrew Bannerman, said it would be a fitting way to commemorate one of the town's most celebrated residents.

He said: "He is to many people one of the most important people to have come out of this town. I know he was born in Oswestry but he lived a lot of his short life in Shrewsbury and this was of course where the telegram was delivered as the armistice bells rang. He is very much a son of the town and it would be great to have this bust in the town."

Mr Padgett said: "My proposal is to donate the sculpture for a site in Shrewsbury with no costs to the town – though any help, particularly if the work was sited outdoors, would be very gratefully received.

"Most important for me is the honour of having the work sited in such an appropriate location.

"Owen spent many years in Shrewsbury and the many letters that he wrote to his mother are addressed to here. It is also where his mother received the telegram of his death one week before the end of the war."

Mr Padgett said the sculpture has been created in the style of another famous literary figure.

He said: "The bust is in a figurative style, characteristic of many artworks from the period in which he lived, and echoes the bust of the poet Keats, whom Owen admired."

"It is built onto a World War One shell case and is based on extensive research of biographies and photographs of Owen and has correct military badges and buttons.

"It also has a base which has items associated with Owen's life within a cap – book, pistol, shell case and military cross.

"There will be five busts located at key places in Owen's life with one already in the War Poets Collection at Craiglockhart, Edinburgh, where Owen was treated for "shell-shock" and met fellow poet Siegfried Sassoon, and one was presented by Peter Owen, the nephew of Wilfred, to Jacky Duminy, the mayor of Ors, France, the village where Owen was killed just one week before the end of the war and is now buried."

Councillor Bannerman said that they would discuss a number of possible venues for the sculpture at a meeting of the recreation and leisure committee next Wednesday.

He said: "I think the Wilfred Owen Association very much hope that it would go in the museum because it would mean it was safe and there is some interpretation area around it.

"I think there are other possibilities and they will be discussed by the town council."