Owen was born in Shropshire, and had three siblings; two brothers and a sister. When he was very small, the family moved to Birkenhead, where he went to school. Later, he attended Shrewsbury Technical School. Although he passed the exams necessary to go to university, he was unable to go because his parents could not afford the fees. Before the war, he worked as an assistant to a vicar, and then went to France to teach English to the children of a French family. About a year after war broke out, he joined the army as a junior officer, and was eventually sent back to France with the Manchester Regiment in 1916.