Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon “I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this War, on which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest.” WWI War Poetry Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon soldier's statement (or 'declaration against the War'), dated 15th June 1917

Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (1886–1967) Siegfried joined the Sussex Yeomanry on 4th August 1914. He was promoted to lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers in May 1915. Joined the Battalion in France on 17th November as a transport officer. 4th august same day that England declared war Siegfried Sassoon was born at Weirleigh outside of the village of Matfield in Kent on 8th September 1886 wealthy Jewish merchant family

In March 1916 Siegfried was finally secured a front-line placement. He spent the early summer of 1916 on leave. He contracted dysentery and was in hospital for sometime. He returned to France in January 1917, was wounded by a sniper during a raid near Fontaine-les-Croisilles in April Also in March 1916 - He received a Military Cross for his actions in May 1916. He displayed such bravery that he attracted the nickname 'Mad Jack'. While on Leave - During his recovery period, discouraged by the politics of war at home and the deaths of numerous friends at the front, he made contact with the group of pacifists led by Bertrand Russell and Lady Ottoline Morrell. Pacifists are a group of people that feel that war is unjustified and should be settled in a peaceful manner.

Wrote his soldier's statement or declaration against the War 15th June 1917, calling for a Negotiated peace. Siegfried was sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh to be treated for neurasthenia (trauma of war). There he met and formed a friendship with the psychiatrist W. H. R. Rivers, and the poet Wilfred Owen. After he wrote the declaration of war Robert Graves feared he would be court marshalled, so he intervened There in the hospital he met Wilfred and they became friends and Wilfred’s mentor.

Throughout his war service he continued to read and write In February 1918 Siegfried was dispatched to serve in Palestine, but in May found himself back in France with the battalion supporting allied forces. On 13th June while returning to the trenches from a patrol in No Man's Land he was accidentally mistaken for a German by a sentry from his company, and was shot in the head. Throughout his war service he continued to read and write poetry, encouraged by Robert Graves. Shot in the head - This event ended his direct experience of the war.

in December 1933 Siegfried married Hester Gatty In 1951 Siegfried was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire He died at the age of 80 and is buried at St Andrew’s Church. On 11 November 1985 his name, along with 15 others, was added to a slab in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen, 1893 - 1918 From the age of nineteen Owen wanted to be a poet and immersed himself in poetry. He wrote almost no poetry of importance until he saw action in France in 1917. He felt pressured by the propaganda to become a soldier and volunteered on 21st October 1915 He was full of boyish high spirits at being a soldier. 

Within a week he had been transported to the front line in a cattle wagon and was "sleeping " 70 or 80 yards from a heavy gun which fired every minute or so. experiencing gas attacks and was horrified by the stench of the rotting dead; his sentry was blinded, his company then slept out in deep snow and intense frost till the end of January. That month was a profound shock for him: he now understood the meaning of war. While away he Wrote 664 letter to his mother who he was deeply attached to and she saved everyone.

Above all I am not concerned with Poetry. “My subject is War, He saw a good deal of front-line action, he was blown up, concussed and suffered shell-shock. At Craiglockhart, the psychiatric hospital in Edinburgh, he met Siegfried Sassoon who inspired him to develop his war poetry. Owen, too, wanted to make his protest like Sassoon, yet he couldn't relate to the pacifists. Above all I am not concerned with Poetry. “My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.” Within twelve days of arriving in France the easy-going chatter of his letters turned to a cry of anguish For most of the time he was in the army Wilfred Owen lived and fought as an outsider. By his upbringing, character, religion and philosophy he was totally unsuited to the role of a soldier. He was shy, unoffensive, bookish, introverted, unworldly, sensitive, caring and deeply Christian. He tried conscientiously to do his duty and play his part. The action he saw and the experiences he had were about as extreme and traumatic as any experienced by other soldiers on the Western Front.

By April 1918 he had taken another crucial decision. He had decided to turn his back on life. Talking to his brother whilst home on leave he said that he wanted to return to the front line. "I know I shall be killed. But it's the only place I can make my protest from." He was sent back to the trenches in September, 1918 and in October won the Military Cross by seizing a German machine-gun and using it to kill a number of Germans. 4th November he was shot and killed near the village of Ors. On 26th August he was declared fit for front line action and instructed to embark for France. He wrote to Sassoon, "Everything is clear now; and I am in hasty retreat towards the Front." Retreat from life, perhaps, or from himself.