Oswestry gifted the Wilfred Owen Violin and Associated Instruments

Veronica Lillis DL represented the Lord-Lieutenant at a ceremony in Oswestry Council Chamber where luthier Steve Burnett officially handed over the violins and viola to the people of Oswestry.  He crafted them from a branch of a sycamore tree that still grows in the grounds of the former Craiglockhart Hospital in Edinburgh where Wilfred Owen was treated for shell shock during WW1, and where he met fellow soldier, poet and mentor Siegfried Sassoon.

The instruments donated to Oswestry (where Owen was born), include the Wilfred Owen Violin (pictured), the Siegfried Sassoon violin, the Robert Graves Violin, the Maggie McBean Viola (matron at Craiglockhart) and the Rivers & Brock Cello (named after the doctors who treated Owen in hospital).

The Wilfred Owen Festival in Oswestry runs from 15 – 23 March culminating in a classical music concert on Sunday 23 March featuring the Wilfred Owen String Quartet of Instruments.