Edward Charles Everard Owen was born on 31st July 1860 in Forres, Moray, Scotland. His parents were the Reverend Edward Henry Owen, an Episcopal Church Minister, and his wife, Ellen Owen, nee Buttivant The family lived in Tulloch House, Forres, at the time of Everard’s birth.
Everard followed his father's calling and trained as a Church Minister. In 1887, Everard married Rose Dora Ashington. Their children were: Lesley D, b. 1890, Godfrey E., b. 1890, Philip Henry Ashington, b. 1892, James Fountain, b. 1892, Ralph Everard, b. 1899 and Rose May, b. 1903.
By the 1911 Census, Everard was a school master at Harow School in North London, UK.
Harrow School – one of England’s oldest public schools - was founded in 1572 under a Royal Charter granted by Queen Elizabeth I. It is located in a leafy 300-acre estate, encompassing much of Harrow on the Hill in north-west London.
According to The Harrow Association:
Owen, The Rev Edward Charles Everard - Master (Classics) 1866-1918; House Master of The Knoll 1901-08. Fellow of New College, Oxford (1st in ‘Greats’). Christian fundamentalist; author of books on Latin syntax and Ancient History.
On the 1921 Census the Owen family are listed as living in the Vicarage of St James Church , Curtain Road, Shoreditch, Hackney, North Londo, where Everard was the Vicar. Only Rose May Owen, born in 1902, was still living at home by then.
Everard died in London on 20th July 1949. Probate was granted to his son, Ralph Everard Owen.
“THREE HILLS “ by The Reverend Everard Owen
There is a hill in England,
Green fields and a school I know
Where the balls fly fast in summer
And the whispering elm trees grow
A little hill, a dear hill,
And the playing fields below.
There is a hill in Flanders,
Heaped with a thousand slain,
Where the shells fly night and noontide
And the ghosts that died in vain,
A little hill, a hard hill
To the souls that died in pain.
There is a hill in Jewry,
Three crosses pierce the sky,
On the midmost He is dying
To save all those who die,
A little hill, a kind hill
To souls in jeopardy.
Everard Owen
Harrow, December, 1915
Found in “A Treasury of War Poetry” Edited by George Herbert Clarke (Houghton Mifflin, 1917) from “Three Hills and Other Poems” by Everard Owen (Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1916) - 14 pages.
According to Catherine W. Reilly in her magnificent “English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography” p. 244, Everard Owen published the WW1 volume of his poems under the title "Three Hills, and other poems" (Sidgwick and Jackson, London, 1916) and also had poems published in 13 WW1 Anthologies.
Sources: Find my Past, Free BMD and
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89099766255&view=1up&seq=7
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-33989186
https://www.harrowschool-ww1.org.uk/
Catherine W. Reilly “English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978) p. 244
