Frank Langley and John Blackwell





Paul's Row(picture from SWOP website) 		Frank Langley footballer




Frank Langley 1885 - 1918

Hello, my name is Frank Langley. My father was Frederick Langley (born in Downley) and my mother was Mary Elizabeth Youens (born in Wycombe). They were married in 1881.

I was born in 1885 in Downley. I had an older sister, Ada Elizabeth born 1882 in Downley, and a younger brother, Charles, born 1889 in Wycombe. My father was a commercial traveller.

Football was my life. Ever since I took my first steps, I had been playing football. I got my first county cap in 1899, and between 1904 and 1910 I had 194 First Team appearances for Wycombe Wanderers. With my fancy footwork, I played outside right. The Bucks Free Press wrote that “there was no more popular player in the Wycombe team.” This might have been overdoing it a little, but I did help us to win plenty of games. 1908/9 was our best ever season, seeing us place third, but our proudest moment came during the 1909/10 season when we throttled Staines 18-1!

I stopped playing with the team in 1910, carrying on with my day job as a chair maker’s assistant. At that time, I still lived with my parents, Fred and Elizabeth, along Paul’s Row in the middle of town. My sister Ada and brother Charles lived there too, as did Frank Reynolds, who was our goalkeeper Eddie Reynolds’s younger brother; he was training to be a hairdresser. In 1911 I married Eddie and Frank’s sister Rachel.

The mood changed in 1913; economic problems caused a number of the factories to shut their doors; many were left out of work. When war broke out it made sense for men to sign up. Frank and Eddie did, and like me, both died. I joined the Training Battalion in January 1917 and trained at Oxford and at Chisledon then I was subsequently transferred to the 12th Gloucesters and went to a camp in Sittingbourne, Kent before leaving for overseas that November. I became Lance Corporal 35710 in the 13th Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment. I proved to be a good soldier and I hope, had I lived, that I would have been in line for further promotion. In 1917 our little son Frank W Langley was born to myself and Rachel, and we named him after me. By 1918 we had moved to 4, Hillside View, Upper Hughenden Road. This is where Rachel was living when she received news of my death.

My luck ran out in the final year of the war. On 21st March 1918 the Germans launched their Spring Offensive, punching through the lines of our Third and Fifth Armies. On 22nd March we saw action as we desperately tried to shore up our defences. We fought ourselves to virtual annihilation, suffering 300 killed, wounded, and missing. I was one of the wounded. I remember only snapshots as I moved down the line. First was the Regimental Aid Post where they cleaned my wounds and did something for the pain. Next came the Advanced Dressing Station from where I was transported to a Casualty Clearing Station several miles back. From there we moved by train back to the military hospital at Etaples. It was there where I died on Sunday 24th March 1918. My wounds were too severe.

There was a memorial put up by my old football team, to remember us who died. The inscription at the foot read: “They fought a good fight.” I like to think we did.






Desborough Road (picture from SWOP website) 		Frank Langley and John Blackwell plaque, High Wycombe Cemetery


John Blackwell 1887 - 1917

I was born in Chesham in 1887. My father James Blackwell worked, as so many did, in the chair industry. My mother Emma was always busy looking after me and my five other brothers and sisters. My mother died in 1909 and she was such a loss to us all. Life wasn’t the same again. We moved to 124 Desborough Road, High Wycombe and I was at the time working as a French polisher. It was in Wycombe that I met Ada Langley, sister of Frank, who became my future wife. We married in 1913 and in 1916 George Clifford Raymond Blackwell was born but little did we know that the Great War would cut short our happy family life.

I joined the 2/1st Buckinghamshire Battalion which had been set up at Aylesbury at the start of the war and became Sergeant 265959. By early 1915 The 2/1st Bucks were great guys, driven and focused, but not afraid to poke fun either at themselves or each other. If it wasn’t for them, I’m not sure I would've got as far as I did. Pulled me through some tough times.

It wasn’t anything too aggressive at the start, though. Three months basic training, and then in January 1915 we moved to Northampton, attached ourselves to the 184th Brigade in 61st division. From then, it was straight to Writtle, just outside Chelmsford where we saw more of the 4th going through basic training, and then to Broomfield in Essex. For a lad who had barely been out of Bucks before, I was certainly moving around the country!

Just after New Year 1916, the news went round that we were headed to Parkhouse Camp, on Salisbury Plain and after a spell there we finally crossed the channel. My first real encounter with what war really meant was on the 19th July 1916 when I found myself involved in the Battle of Fromelles. Of the 184th Brigade the Royal Berks were detailed for the right, the Bucks for the left of the attack. The Australians were to our left. During the afternoon “lifts to barrage lines “were ordered and our guns concentrated for up to ten minutes on one enemy target and then focused on another. When this was happening we were told that we were to show our bayonets and steel helmets over the parapets, and officers were to whistle and shout orders with the view of inducing the enemy to man his parapet and thereby incur heavy casualties from the guns. At 6 pm we were ordered to assault the enemy’s trenches and I can honestly say our assault was magnificent and we cheered as we went over the top. Not a man wavered but the enemy machine guns were so busy that they literally mowed us down. Only few actually got to the German parapet but none of those got back. By 6.30 p.m. it was evident that the attack had failed. How come I survived seven hours of bombardment and so many of my pals did not, I’ll never understand that.

The work of reorganising the Battalion started at once since as I heard one of our officers say our battalion had been knocked to pieces. This job was given to Major Muir and he turned out to be an effective and popular chap. The new drafts quickly integrated into the ranks and as the Battalion gained strength a great feeling of team spirit returned. We were all determined to defeat the enemy!

On the 1st April 1917 the battalion relieved the 2/8 Warwicks in the line at Soyecourt. The Germans were holding the line just to the NE. We were ordered to attack on the 2nd and at 5am the guns opened fire. As we advanced, that was when I met my maker. I’ll never know what happened but at least it was quick. There wasn’t even time to think of Ada. I was later buried at Vadencourt British cemetery, France.

Frank and George 'Eddie' Reynolds are also remembered in High Wycombe Cemetery.







Researched by Researched by Neill George, Gill Evans, and the girls of Wycombe Abbey School, Jack, John Hampden Grammar School and Sally Scagell, Lost The Plot

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