Alun Lewis was a Welsh poet who lived from 1 July 1915 to 5 March 1944. He is one of the most well-known English-language poets of WWII. Alun Lewis was born on July 1, 1915, in Aberdare in the Cynon Valley of the South Wales Coalfield. His father and mother were also teachers at Llanwern, and he had two brothers and a younger sister, Mair. When he was eight years old, his family moved to Cardiff where his father took up a post as director of studies at the University of Wales. During the 1930s, he developed a reputation as a leading voice of modern poetry in Britain. In 1938, he married Jane Rennie with whom he had three children. The following year, he began work on his first volume of poems, Early Poems, which was published in 1939. During the Second World War, he served in the Royal Air Force from 1942 until 1945 when he was discharged due to ill health. After his discharge, he worked as a schoolteacher before dying of cancer at the age of 36 on March 5, 1944. His body was taken to Llangollen in North Wales where it was buried beside a white china dog that he had been given when he was a student at Llanwenog College. In 1951, his wife and children followed him to Wales where they scattered his remains over the sea off Anglesey. Today, schools across Britain hold annual celebrations of Alun Lewis's life and work.