W Osborn Royal West Kent Regiment

W. E. Osborn

Royal West Kent Regiment 

William Osborn front row right.

My Grandfather William Edmund Osborn was born 10 Feb. 1879 at 70 Widmore Rd Bromley Kent. He was in the Militia at the outbreak of war and he enlisted in the Royal West Kent Regiment on the 21 September 1914 at the age of 35.

His Territorial or Militia number was 2443 but by the time he was discharged from the Royal West Kent's in 1919 it had changed to 240678.

I still have to find details of is pre WW1 service but as he was awarded the  Territorial Force War Medal he must have been a "Saturday Night Soldier" or Territorial for at least 4 years prior to September 1914.

His service record like many has been burnt but I have managed to piece together his movements Unit : The Queens Own ( Royal West Kent Regiment)

Sub Unit : 1/5th Battalion Territorial Force {note 1/5 =1st line Territorial Unit No 5}

Movements :

04.08.1914 Drill Hall, East St, Bromley, Kent Brigade Home Counties Division

00.08.1914 Dover and Canterbury

00.09.1914 Sandwich area

30.10.1914 Sailed to India from Southampton

01 / 03.12.1914 Arrived Bombay India - Training and Drafts for Mesopotamia

11.12.1917 Landed at Basra Mesopotamia and eventually joined the 54th Brigade of the 18th Indian Division

His regiment was in the following Battles

23rd Oct - 26th Oct 1918 Actions of Fat - Ha George and on the Little Zab

28th Oct - 30th Oct 1918 Battle of Sharqat

31.10.1918 Mesopotamia near Sharqat on Tigris, North of Tigrit

William in his tropical gear and on guard in Jhansi. (Someone couldn't hold the camera straight!)