In Flanders Fields at Central Ref* ...... remembering Wilfred Owen

Now David Harrop is a modest man, and having mounted a major exhibition at Central Ref, commemorating Manchester’s involvement in the Great War, he was happy just to meet the visitors who came to see In Flanders Fields and read the comments they left.

That said I know he was proud that the Lord Mayor visited the exhibition last week and was particularly taken by the display dedicated to some of the poets of the Great War.

David told me that “coming down in the lift from the upper floors at the Central Ref you cannot help but see the giant poppy displayed in the original large flat display cabinet which houses part of the in Flanders Fields exhibition. 

This display case is a tribute to the poets, John Mccrae, Rupert Brook and Wilfred Owen. 

When the Lord Mayor saw Owen’s obituary newspaper cutting, she invited me to the event  marking Wilfred Owen’s death on November 4 1918”. 

David who is a distant relative of the poet was able to visit the Clifton hotel in Scarborough and look out at the North Sea from his room where Wilfred Owen wrote some of his poems.

And never one to miss an occasion David also went along to Manchester Cathedral where as part of the “centenary commemorations there is a small exhibition about the Royal Mint’s £2 Armistice coin designed by the Cathedral’s Artist-in-Residence, Stephen Raw, which  includes lines from Wilfred Owen”. 

Location Central Ref









Pictures; The War Poets Cabinet, courtesy of David Harrop

*In Flanders Fields will continue in Central Ref till the end of November

**Wilfred Owen Exhibition, Manchester Cathedral, November 4th to November 24th 10am to 4pm http://www.manchestercathedral.org/events/2115/wilfred-owen-exhibition