Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry War Memorial

Rose Hill Memorial

Above: War Memorial to soldiers of the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire (“Ox & Bucks”) Light
Infantry who died in the First and Second World Wars (photographed in September 2012).
The location on the east side of Rose Hill at its junction with Church Cowley Road was
specifically chosen so that the memorial could be seen against the sky

Below: The same war memorial when it was new (probably 1920s)

Ox & Bucks war memorial

This memorial is by Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens (who also designed the Cenotaph in London) was unveiled by Major-General Sir John Hanbury Williams, KC, KCVO, CMG in November 1923 and dedicated by Bishop Shaw (see photograph on front page of the Oxford Journal Illustrated of 14 November 1923, with four more photographs on page 3).

It was originally proposed that the regimental memorial should be sited closed to the Ox & Bucks barracks at Bullingdon Green, but no suitable site was found, and instead it was built on land on Rose Hill donated by Christ Church.

Additions were made to it as a result of the Second World War.

It is made of Portland Stone, and is a Grade II listed structure (List Entry No. 1369419)

North side: Date of start of First World War

MCMXIV (1914)

1919

South side: Date of end of First World War

MCMXIX (1919)

1919

East side: Second World War tribute,
added to the side that was left blank

TO THE
GLORIOUS MEMORY
OF 1408 OF ALL RANKS
OF THE
OXFORDSHIRE
AND
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE
LIGHT INFANTRY
WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES
IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR
1939–1945

1919

West side:
First World War tribute

TO THE
GLORIOUS MEMORY
OF 5878 OF ALL RANKS
OF THE
OXFORDSHIRE
AND
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE
LIGHT INFANTRY
WHO FELL IN
THE GREAT WAR

A photograph of a group of Iffley children attending a Remembrance Day service at this memorial in 1926 can be seen in the Oxford Journal Illustrated, 17 November 1926.

This memorial on the Database of the Imperial War Museums

and on War Memorials online

Back to Oxford War Memorials

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Oxford War Memorials: OBLI, Rose Hill