The sixth son and ninth child of Adam Oldham (1781–1839) of Balham, a solicitor, was born on 31 January 1815; his mother, Ann Lane, was a daughter of William Stubbington Penny, and Charles James Oldham (1843–1907) the university benefactor was a nephew.

[1] In 1849 Oldham was appointed, with J. C. W. Lever, physician-accoucheur and lecturer on midwifery and diseases of women at Guy's Hospital.

[1] His unique diet consisted of bread, butter, eggs, a milk pudding and coffee, cocoa and tea.

[4] Before his appointment at Guy's Hospital, Oldham studied embryology in the developing chick by means of coloured injections and the microscope.

He made 17 contributions to "Guy's Hospital Reports", besides writing four papers in the Transactions of the Obstetrical Society of London (of which he was one of the founders, an original trustee, and President in 1863–5).