These related pages cover the war memorials erected after the First World War within Oldbury Urban District, the local authority in the 1920s.

The first table lists all the memorials known to Langley Local History Society, showing the number of individual names and the present location of the memorial, together will a link providing details and photographs. A summary of the recent project to preserve the Langley Parish Memorials is available here.

The second table links to pages giving the story of individual soldiers that have been researched by the society. This is an ongoing project, and batches of soldiers will be added when available. Currently, only the histories of the sixty-four men named on the Langley Memorial window are included.

Finally a link is provided to a single alphabetic index of the soldiers whose stories have been written.

Known Memorials within Oldbury Urban District

The Oldbury Branch of the Royal British Legion has a collection of individual memorabilia relating to individual men who served in the war, and also have a garden of remembrance at their premises in Windsor Road, Langley.

Neither the present whereabouts, nor the original details, of some other memorials have been traced, for example, the Brades Village Roll of Honour, and the Rood End Roll of Honour compiled by the Rood End Sailors' and Soldiers' Fund.

Further information on memorials or individual soldiers is welcomed, and Langley Local History Society may be contacted through this site at: general@historyofoldbury.co.uk.

Histories of the Fallen of Oldbury, Langley and Warley

In 2007 Langley Local History Society collected the names of as many Oldbury men as they could trace, researched their stories, and published a book, 'The Fallen of Oldbury, Langley and Warley, 1914-18' (still on sale). Further information is now available on these men with the publication of the 1911 census and those military records that are still extant. Therefore, the stories of the soldiers can be updated, and these will be added to the website as they become available. In addition, around twenty other men of Oldbury Urban District have been traced, bring the total who fell to around 580 men.

In 2014 the two Langley memorials, a cross and a stained-glass window, situated at St Michael and All Angels, Langley Green, were threatened when the building was sold. Langley Local History Society set up a Memoreial Appeal Fund to renovate and re-site these monuments, and this project has now been completed. Restoration of the window was part-funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. To fulfill the requirements of the grant, Langley Local History Society agreed to research and publish fuller details of the sixty-four men named on this window. Their stories, in booklet form, may be consulted at Langley, Oldbury and Bleakhouse libraries, and are set out on this website.

The local history society has decided to continue re-visiting the stories of the other five hundred or so men of Oldbury, Langley and Warley who fell in WW1, and will add to the listings here when sections have been completed. At present, two sections have been completed, those for the Langley men listed on the Langley Memorial Window (about half of all the Langley men who died), and the Memorial Board at St Hilda's, Warley Woods.

These are PDF files which open in a separate window. They may be freely downloaded, and the pages are A4 size enabling all or part of the file to be easily printed.

Index of Histories of the Fallen

An alphabetic index of all the soldiers and sailors with connections to Oldbury, Langley and Warley currently identified by Langley Local History Society is available here. Only those whose history has been researched are indicated.

We would welcome details of any person omitted from this list. Contact us on general@historyofoldbury.co.uk.

Please note, the area covered is that of the Borough of Oldbury, established in 1935, and not the area within Sandwell currently defined as 'Oldbury'.