Glyn Owen lived at 6 Cybi Place, Holyhead, Anglesey, Wales and he was a fluent Welsh speaker. He attended Park School and then County School, both in Holyhead.

After Glyn left school, he worked at the Stead and Simpson shoe shop as an assistant manager. At the time, he was dating a young lady called Nancy, who also worked as an assistant in the same shop.

Glyn's niece, Gwyneth Hughes, said he used to talk about two good looking film stars, whom he thought he looked like; one was Robert Taylor and the other Richard Greene. Gwyneth also remembered Glyn speaking to one of his English friends, who was laughing at a serious matter and he said to them "What for you laugh, when there's no laugh to be." This phrase became a joke within the family.

When Glyn joined the army, he was recorded as being 5ft 8 inches, with hazel eyes and dark hair. He had been promised a managerial position at Stead and Simpson and was going to get engaged to Nancy when he came out of the army.

Glyn joined the army on 16th July 1939 and his training was completed at the Kinmel Park Camp in Bodelwyddan, near Rhyl. Gwyneth seems to recall that Glyn did come back home after his initial training at the camp. When he departed to join his regiment, the family members who accompanied him to the railway station were his twin sister Lily, two other sisters Dilys and Maggie and Gwyneth Hughes, aged about 8 at the time. They stayed there until the train left. Gwyneth recalls him on the train, putting his head down and that was the last they saw of him. She also remembered him saying to them all at the station "Don't worry about me, because the Japanese will never come out in war." Of course, we all know now that Japan's war against the Western Allies started when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour on December 7th December 1941; the day after Gwyneth's 10th birthday.

Glyn was posted to China 17th December 1939 and was captured as a Japanese Prisoner of War on 26th December 1941.

The family received a letter informing them that Glyn was missing in action. They still expected him to return home, but they were informed later that he was he was being transported on the Lisbon Maru in Hold 3 when the ship was torpedoed and eventually sunk. They were all devasted by this news.