Remembering Wilfred Owen, William Castle, and Percy Buss

Posted on: 8, November, 2018
Wilfred Owen, Percy Buss, William Castle

Every day on the British Army Ancestors Facebook page I take time to commemorate a British soldier. This post will look at three of the men I have remembered recently.  From left to right: Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC, William Henry Castle, and Percy Charles Buss.

Lieutenant Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC, Manchester Regiment

Wilfred Owen was killed in action on the 4th November 1918 and I remembered him on the 100th anniversary of his death. In his poem, Strange Meeting, he wrote some of the most powerful words in the English language:

“I am the enemy you killed, my friend. 
I knew you in this dark: for so you frowned 
Yesterday through me as you jabbed and killed. 
I parried; but my hands were loath and cold. 
Let us sleep now. . . .”

William Henry Castle, Royal Fusiliers

William Henry Castle was a corporal serving with one of the Royal Fusiliers public schools battalions when this photograph was taken in one of David Knights-Whittome‘s studios on the 20th January 1915. Corporal Castle was subsequently commissioned and served overseas with the Royal Fusiliers as a 2nd Lieutenant, later transferring to the Royal Army Service Corps. He is the only man of the three men remembered her today who survived the war.

Percy Charles Buss, 5th London Regiment; later 4th East Kent Regiment (The Buffs)

Percy Buss was still a private serving with the 5th London Regiment when this photo was taken of him in one of David Knights-Whittome‘s studies on the 10th January 1916.

He had served overseas with the battalion since November 1914 and would later be commissioned – in October 1916 – in the 6th East Kent Regiment. Less than a year later, on the 24th June 1917, whilst serving with the 4th East Kent Regiment, he would be killed in action. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial. He was 26 years old.

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