The Christopher Salmon Poetry Competition 2025.

The Christopher Salmon Foundation, in conjunction with Wirral Poetry Festival and Wirral Libraries, is delighted to announce the launch of the 15th and sadly the final Christopher Salmon Poetry Competition.

The theme for this year’s competition is Hope. The competition is open to entrants under 19 years of age, being educated in Wirral. Entry is Free.

A £100 Prize will be awarded to the winner of each of the following five age categories. Age 7 and under (KS 1), Age 8-11 (KS 2), Age 11-13 (KS 3), Age 14-16 (KS 4) and Age 16-19 (in full time education).

Entries must be submitted using the official entry form, which are obtainable either from the website wirralpoetryfestival.org.uk/Christopher Salmon or in hard copy from any Wirral Library.

Entries can either be submitted by email to chrissalmonpoetry@wirral.gov.uk or hard copy entries submitted by post or by hand delivery: FAO Diane Mitchell at Birkenhead Central Library, Borough Road, Birkenhead. CH41 2XB.

The closing date for the receipt of poetry competition entries is noon on Friday 7th March 2025.

For further details and for the full terms and conditions please visit any of the following websites www.wirral.gov.uk/libraries , wirralpoetryfestival.org.uk/christophersalmon.

We look forward to receiving your entries and thank you so much for your support over the last 15 years, as it has meant a great deal to us to continue to keep Chris’s memory alive.

Sadly on the 5th of February 2009 our youngest son Chris Salmon passed away very suddenly aged just 15, from a streptococcal virus and pneumonia. He was a loving, caring boy with a charismatic smile who had so much still to give and we his Parents and Brother wanted his memory to live on and to do this we have set up the Christopher Salmon Foundation.

Chris's and our friends have been a great source of comfort to us and have been so supportive in helping us fund-raise for this foundation and to them we remain indebted.

Chris was a student of Calday Grammar School and was just about to sit his GCSEs, he had hopes of becoming an author and dreamt of studying Russian and English at Oxford University. His passion for both subjects was infectious and since his untimely death, a book "The Siege of Leningrad" has been published in conjunction with Calday School - the book is dedicated to Chris and contains some of his work.

We hope that from reading this website you may be able to get an insight into Chris's life and to what, we his family hope to achieve with the funds we raise.

With grateful thanks for your support

Julie , Rich and Jonny Salmon

Rowan McCabe

Foundation funds Rowan McCabe's poetry workshop at Calday Grammar

£66,902.47

Is the total amount raised by the charity so far. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us with our fundraising.

Want to know more about the Foundation?

Tell me more