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Our War Memorial here in Wednesbury was officially unveiled on the 4th November 1926, with the original intention of honouring those who fell in the Great War of 1914-1918. The memorial itself was the work of the Bateman company, a firm of architects based in Birmingham. The memorial being constructed from Portland stone to their design. The work was considered to be of enough architectural significance to have been mentioned by the renowned Nikolaus Pevsner in his 1974 work, The Building of England: Staffordshire.

The memorial was subsequently re-dedicated on the 10th May 1953, when the townsfolk of Wednesbury commemorated those who had been killed serving during the Second World War.

When commissioned in the early 1920's the plan was for the memorial to feature a series of plaques commemorating the names of the dead mounted on the wall running immediately to the rear of the memorial. However, this intention did not come to fruition, which left Wednesbury in the unique position in England of having the only town memorial which does not include the actual names of the local people who have lost their lives whilst serving their country commemorated on the town's war memorial.

"Another 390 names have been added to a booklet honouring Wednesdburys fallen heroes.

Details of the 'forgotten heroes' have been uncovered by historians from the Wednesbury War Memorial Campaign Group.

The names of those who were killed in action in the First or Second world wars have now been included alongside the existing 623 names already listed in Wednesbury's Book of Remembrance, which was put together earlier this year."

Since the original dedication in 1926, local men and women have continued to serve their country, with some continuing to lose their lives during such service. It is believed that more than 700 local people have lost their lives serving our country since 1914. With this ongoing sacrifice in mind, our plans to update the memorial, will mark not only those killed to date, but also the servicemen and women who may be lost to us in the future. We feel that this approach is only right and proper, and such sacrifice by our fellow townsfolk be marked at an openly publicly accessible site, that can be visited freely at any time by anybody.

Our group originally came together following a suggestion by one of the local townspeople, that the current memorial be updated as a mark of continuing respect. This idea has been taken up by a number of like minded people who formed the Memorial Group as a way of developing the plan, with the aim of bringing the local community on board to support the objective.

The long term aim of our Group however, is not simply the upgrading of the monument itself. We also want to tie in with other organisations, and use the upgrading as a springboard to raise awareness of our local and national history, showing the role Wednesbury has played in such events. We see the opportunities for tie-in's and partnership working as multifold, and we aim to ensure the memorial continues to hold a relevance and significance to future generations in our town.

From the feasibility study two options were put forward for potential approval, the cost for each being dependent upon materials employed etc.

if you have a connection with Wednesbury, and still live locally (or even if you now live on the other side of the world) and want to get involved with the Memorial project there are a number of ways you can. We are keen to find out more about those whose names appear on the Rolls of Honour and are equally keen to ensure there are no omissions from the current rolls. Please have a look through the website to find out how you yourself might be able to contribute in our quest for information.

Obviously, in addition to gathering information, what we need right now is money to complete the updating of the memorial. The cost for completion of the upgrade to the memorial has been set at £60,000. Our local borough council here in Sandwell has generously pledged £15,000 toward the cost already. We are though currently trying to raise the balance of cost of the upgrade through various avenues, including public donations.

If you would like to make a personal contribution towards the cost of adding the name plaques to the memorial we would love to hear from you. Please use our making a donation page to get in touch with us should you wish to make such a contribution.