Sapper Owen Glynn was born in Croydon, Queensland, in on 24 January 1905, and was educated at Mt Carmel College, Charters Towers.
He joined the Australian Army on 18 June 1940 and was assigned to the 2/11 Field Company, Royal Australian Engineers. In early-1942 he was deployed to Ambon as part of Gull Force, and taken prisoner by the Japanese on 4 February 1942. He was sent to Hainan Island, China, in November of that year as part of a contingent of approximately 260 Australian POWs where he worked on building roads, railways and bridges.
Owen died of beri-beri on 27 August 1945 and was initially buried adjacent to the POW camp at Dongfang, Hainan. Following the end of World War II he was re-interred at the Yokohama Commonwealth War Cemetery.