Please follow the pointer above if you would like to see a biography of all the men on the memorial
The ecclesiastical parish of Highfield had a total population of 1,636 at the time of the 1911 census, and it lost 54 young men and one woman in the First World War. The names below are listed on a board inside the church.
Notes
- St Andrew’s Church also claims Thomas Harold Allen, Alfred Cull, Harold Dennis, Frank Jeffries, Frank Hathaway, Alfred Taylor and William Webb as its own.
- Frank Bateman and William Bateman were brothers.
- Hugh Davenport and Leonard Davenport were brothers, and lived in Davenport House.
- James Durham and John Durham were brothers.
- Frank Gardner and Jack Gardner were probably brothers.
- Herbert White and William White were brothers.
- Marguerite Woodcock is the only Headington woman known to have died as a result of the First World War. Although she has a war grave in Headington Cemetery, she was not originally listed on the All Saints' war memorial board, but this omission was rectified in June 2019.
The Headington hero who survived the war
In 1917 Sergeant-Major Edward Brooks of Windsor Street in Highfield parish was the first man in the Oxford & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry to win the Victoria Cross in the First World War (see the front page of Oxford Journal Illustrated of 11 July 1917). He survived the war, so does not appear on these pages.
The above names are in the order in which they appear on the wooden board (below), which is in strict alphabetical order until the last name. There are other men with Highfield origins who are not remembered on the memorial: see for instance the information about the death of Alfred Edwin Radburn (CWGC), formerly of New High Street, in The Changing Faces of Headington, Book 2, p. 21.
This memorial on the Database of the Imperial War Museums: Headington – WW1 Board
The war memorial cross at All Saints' Church
A wooden war memorial cross on a stone base was put up in the garden of All Saints’ Church. This has no names, just the words: IN / GRATEFUL / REMEMBRANCE // 1914–1918 at the base of the cross, with 1939–1945 added to the front of the upper step after the Second World War.
The base of the original cross rotted over the years and fell over in August 2008 (below).
This memorial on the Database of the Imperial War Museums: Headington – WW1 Cross
and on War Memorials Online: Highfield (All Saints') Church, Headington
A new cross is now in place:
Below: This card with the text “From All Saints’ Parish, Highfield” under the picture,
was sent at Christmas by members of the congregation of that church
to men of its parish serving abroad in the First World War
All Saints’ parish was only four years old in 1914. It was created in 1910, and took over nearly all of the old St Andrew’s parish that lay to the south of the London Road. To the north, the London Road marks a clear boundary, with the houses on the north side being in St Andrew’s parish, and those to the south in All Saints’ parish. To the west it includes the houses at the top of Headington Hill near the reservoir; and to the south it includes Old Road.
To the east, the boundary is less obvious. For the most part it runs along the centre of Windmill Road, but just to the north of Bateman Street it turns east to incorporate both sides of Windmill Road, and the west side of Holyoake Road.