A number of years ago, we found in our club premises a very old standard of The British Legion Branch Langley (Birmingham). And with the help of the Langley History Society we managed to find out limited information, the Langley Branch was listed in Post Office directories of 1924, 1928, 1932 but is not listed before or afterwards. The standard is now on display in our club premises.
In the Oldbury Royal British Legion we have a great deal of memorabilia remembering those who have gone before, but we would like to extend this to more than just names. We are attempting to put together a historical resource of servicemen of Oldbury & Langley to be used in our activities with local schools, this we hope will hope bring the importance of Remembrance to the schools and young people. Also we hope it will become a valuable resource for our members, teachers, and the local community to find out about their families and the people of Oldbury and Langley who served in the Great War.
Some time ago the Oldbury & Langley History Society put together a book of the fallen of Langley & Oldbury in the Great War, but we don’t just to want to remember the fallen, also those who came home. If you have any photographs, family histories, etc, which we could copy & keep for these purposes it, would be really appreciated. Also I am very aware that we only have a few remaining WW2 veterans left, many are remembered in the Oldbury Royal British Legion, ultimately we want to do the same in the future.
We hope to be able to use these resources to help us;
- To work with families of soldiers to document their lives;
- To produce a learning resource exploring Oldbury & Langley soldiers' histories and the wider impact of the First World War on the area;
- To create a digital record of research that can be uploaded ;
- To produce a touring resource we can take to local schools, libraries and local history groups;
- To make alterations to the Remembrance garden so that the local community and our members can have somewhere quiet and serene to go to contemplate and remember.
After all Remembrance isn’t just for the 11th November, everyday of the year is a day, for looking back and trying to contemplate the where’s and the why’s, for going through the things that have been done and the things that have been left undone. The name of our garden is Remembrance - the place where with patience, with charity, with the perpetual quietness of heart, we remember those who have gone before – We Will Remember Them.
It's hoped by doing all of this we can bring a larger number of the local community in touch with the Royal British Legion as a whole and to our Branch / Club which they may have never visited before, allowing them to see the hidden gems history within our walls and hopefully transform their perceptions of what the Legion is all about and learn more of what we do.
