E. Leslie Gunston ARIBA (1895–1988), most famously, was the beloved cousin of the First World War poet Wildred Owen (1893–1918). The boys' mothers were sisters, and the Owens frequently holidayed at the Gunston's residence at Kidmore End in Berkshire, where Leslie's father John had built a substantial home, Alpenrose. John Gunston was a successful butcher, with a number of shops in the Wimbledon area, and he had been able to retire early, to pursue his love of photography.
Cousins Wilfred and Leslie had a lot in common, sharing an interest in Roman remains, visiting Reading's Museum and secondhand bookshops—and above all, sharing a burgeoning love of poetry. The boys had poetry writing competitions between themselves, and when Wilfred enlisted to serve on the front, he regularly wrote to Leslie, including snippets of poems and news of life on the front line. When Wilfred was hospitalised at Craiglockhart in Edinburgh with shellshock, he wrote to Leslie about his transformative meeting with Siegfried Sassoon. At this time Leslie had a volume of poetry published, 'The Nymph, and Other poems', 1917, and Wilfred expressed his eagerness to show it to Sassoon.
Wilfred Owen was killed in action in Northern France on 4 November 1918, exactly one week before the signing of the Armistice which ended the war. Poignantly, after the war, Leslie Gunston designed the Forbury War Memorial in Reading, which was unveiled in 1932. No doubt the memory of his cousin was paramount for him when working on this commission. Gunston himself avoided active service due to ill health, and with it the horrors of battle; it has been suggested that he in some way represented Wilfred Owen's alter ego, a life had Owen not himself been subject to the transformative realities of war.
