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!)
William - pictured centre back row, was a cook in India, the notice reads THE MUCKIN SQUAD, MENU ANYTHING - EVERYTHING AT - CHEAPEST RATES 2 ANNAS PER HEAD On a postcard to his brother and sister, dated Jan 13 1915 he says "I have got chief cook job for our company, and a fine job plenty to eat and plenty of backshee to make on extra food and plenty of time to myself"
A Bullock cart ambulance with the Royal West Kent Reg at Jhansi India circa 1915.
H. Company Royal West Kent Battalion, Jhansi, India as indicated on a postcard from Private W E Osborn No 2442. dated 13 Jan 1915.
Note the dark blue? uniforms