The faces on the lamp posts: Langley's veteran banners
Seventy-eight local veterans are looking down from Langley lamp posts this month: 50 along Fraser Highway in downtown Langley City and 28 in Fort Langley. Here is where to find them, who is behind them and how a family can add a name.
Walk down Fraser Highway in downtown Langley City this month and look up. Fifty men and women in uniform are looking back. Drive into Fort Langley and there are 28 more.
They’re the veteran banners, and they stay up through the end of November.
Where to see them
Downtown Langley City: 50 banners. Most hang along Fraser Highway through the downtown core. The Downtown Langley Business Association (DLBA) runs the program with the City of Langley, and City crews put them up. The DLBA started hanging Remembrance banners in 2011 and replaces the set about every ten years.
Fort Langley: 28 banners. The Fort Langley Community Association started its program in 2021. Its banners honour local men who served in the First and Second World Wars. The photos and service details were pulled together with Langley historian Warren Sommer and the former Langley Centennial Museum (now salishan Place by the River). The program is paid for with Township of Langley grants, Veterans Affairs Canada funding and community support.
If you’re going to the Fort Langley service on Remembrance Day (10:30 a.m. at the cenotaph in Fort Langley Cemetery, Glover Road and St. Andrews Avenue), come a little early and walk Glover Road first. Glover closes to traffic at 9:45 a.m. for the parade.
A few of the faces
Each banner is a real person with a Langley story. Three that the Langley Heritage Society has written up:
- Private Alfred Trattle farmed in Fort Langley and enlisted in 1916. He was killed near Vimy the next year, leaving a wife and two small children. His brother-in-law, Jesse Wright, also died at Vimy Ridge. Trattle Street and Wright Street on the west side of the village carry their names.
- Private Brian Butler enlisted at 23 and listed his job as “woodsman.” He fought with the 29th Battalion at Vimy Ridge on April 9, 1917, and died of his wounds two weeks later. He is buried in France.
- Eugene Allard, a Fort Langley logger nicknamed “Shorty,” was the grandson of Ovid Allard, who ran the Hudson’s Bay Company post at Fort Langley. He was killed near Ypres at 30. Allard Crescent is named for him.
Once you know a couple of the stories, it’s hard to walk past the lamp posts without stopping.
Can my family add someone?
In Langley City, the DLBA says families can bring a photo of a loved one who served to its office, in the hope of having them on a future banner. Because the set is replaced only about once a decade, a photo you drop off now may not appear for a few years. Get in touch through the Downtown Langley Business Association first to ask what they need from you. Having a clear photo, plus the person’s name, unit and years of service, will help.
For Fort Langley, the banners came out of historical research into local First and Second World War veterans. If you have photos or records of a Fort Langley veteran, the Fort Langley Community Association is the group to contact.
More on Remembrance in Langley
- Remembrance Day 2026 in Langley: every ceremony, with times and road closures
- Langley’s cenotaphs and memorials: where they are and what they say
- Langley in the First World War: the stories behind the names