Pte 17677 William Bernard Freed Osborne

• Age: 21
• From: Cardiff
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
• K.I.A Sunday 30th July 1916
• Commemorated at: Thiepval Memorial
  Panel Ref: P&F1D8B &8 C.

William Bernard Freed Osborne was born in Cardiff in the March quarter of 1895 the son of William Osborne, a mariner and his wife Laura Jane (nee Russell) who married in Cardiff in 1888. Freed was his maternal grandmother’s maiden name. They had four children, two sons, Francis William, born in 1889, and William Bernard Freed, born in 1895, and two daughters, Marion Freed, born in 1893 and Laura Cecilia born 1898 but sadly she died in infancy. 

His mother Laura appears on the 1891 census at 47 Glenroy Street, Cardiff. She is 25, born in Cardiff, and has son Francis, 2 years old.  His father is away at sea.

After Laura’s  early death in 1899, at age 34, the children seem to have been dispersed.   

By 1901 his sister Marion, aged 8, is a student at The Convent, Convent Park Road, Loughborough, where she is also found in 1911. William Osborne, age 6, born in Cardiff, is a boarding pupil at Radford House private school in Weston Super Mare. (As William’s is the only birth in Cardiff of the right age, this is likely him.)  He is the youngest of eight pupils in the school, run by the proprietress, Ann Houghton, and two governesses, with a domestic help.  His brother Francis had not been found on the 1901 census.

His father is found on a 1910 crew record, he is chief steward on the “Salaga”, aged 51, living at 5 Hatherley St, Toxteth (his sister Ellen Smith is on electoral roll there). He is also on a February-May 1911 crew list, address 5 Dudley Road, age 51, as chief steward on the same ship, the Salaga (Elder Dempster Line) from Liverpool to Freetown, Sierra Leone, earning £7-10s a month. 

In 1911 his brother Francis appears to be a school teacher, boarding with the Jones family in Ealing, London. He would marry the daughter Lily in 1914.

There is a William B. Osborne, of the right age, a junior bank clerk, born in Cardiff, boarding with Catherine Naismith, a widow, at 6 Pine Street, Liverpool.

William enlisted in Liverpool on 11th September 1914, as Private 17677, No. 2 Co., 19th (Pals) Bn, King’s (Liverpool) Regiment, giving his age as 19 years and 275 days, strangely adds being born in Wavertree, and his occupation as general clerk. He is described as being 5’ 7 and a half inches tall, weighing 114 lbs, 35” chest, with a fresh complexion, hazel eyes and brown hair. He gives his next of kin as his father, William Osborne, of 5 Dudley Road, Smithdown Road, Liverpool, and his religion as Roman Catholic. 1914 Gores has a Mrs Elizabeth Smith living at 5 Dudley Rd. 

After training locally at Knowlsey, the battalion moved to Belton Park Camp in Lincolnshire, and then to Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain.  Whilst there, on 5 ^th October 1915, William forfeits three days’ pay, and is confined to barracks for eight days for being absent without leave Oct 2-4.  He ships to France with his battalion, disembarking at Boulogne on 07^th November 1915.

In the new year the Pals battalions take up position in the south of the Somme line near Carnoy. On the day the battalion moves out of the line, 16th March 1916, William forfeits seven days’ pay for ‘destroying Field Service cap’. After specialist training in Abbeville for the ‘Big Push’, the battalion returns to the front lines at Maricourt.  On 17th June 1916 William received eight days’ Field Punishment No.2 for ‘leaving his work without permission’. (Field Punishment No.2 entailed being shackled and handcuffed, and subject to hard labour.)  Shortly afterwards, the preparatory British bombardment for the Battle of the Somme began. William survived the deadly month of July 1916, until the 30th, when the 19th Bn is involved in the attack on the village of Guillemont.  The attack fails, and this becomes the deadliest day of the war for the Pals battalions and the City of Liverpool.   

William was one of nearly 500 Liverpool Pals who fell on that day; he was intitally declared Missing in Action. 

19^th Battalion Diary 30^th July 1916

MALTZ HORN FARM

BATTLE begun. ZERO hour 4:45 am. The Battalion reached its objective, but suffered heavy losses, and had to evacuate its position owing to no reinforcements.

Everard Wyrall gives details of the attack in his book The History of The King’s Regiment; 

"The 2nd Attack on Guillemont- 29th July 1916 the 89th Brigade the 20th King's were to attack on the right and the 19th on the left. During the evening of the 29th the night was dark and foggy when the Battalions moved off and the 19th with Lt Col G Rollo commanding, when passing the South east of the Briqueterie they were heavily shelled first with H E and then with a new kind of asphyxiating Gas shell which had curious results, at first it had no nasty effect but about 8 hrs later men began to fall sick with violent headaches and pains in the stomach. All ranks had to wear gas masks which in the darkness and mist made the going terribly difficult. It was indeed wonderful that they were able to reach their Assembly point at all. But they did and by 2.45 a.m. on the 30th July 1916 the Btn was assembled having suffered about 30 Casualties on the way up ready for the Zero hour at 4.45 a.m.

It is known that the two left Companies of the 19th under Capt. Dodd and Capt. Nicholson advanced in touch with the 2nd Royal Scots Fusiliers on their left although they suffered many casualties from Machine gun Fire did not encounter many Germans and reached their final objective about the time allocated, beginning at once to dig in south of the orchard on the South east corner of Guillemont.  

On the left of the 19th the Scots Fusiliers most gallantly forced their way through Guillemont to the eastern side of the village but were soon overwhelmed by the enemy and few returned. 

At 8 a.m. finding that the village was not held the two left Companies of the 19th received no word from the rear or either flank believed themselves to be totally isolated so were forced to fall back and dig in, their position being untenable.

At midday the effective fighting strength of the 19th Btn was just 7 Officers and 43 other ranks" 

When darkness fell on the battlefield the 30^th Division held a line from the railway on the eastern side of Trones Wood , southwards and including Arrow Head Copse, to east of Maltz Horn Farm. On this line the division was relieved by the 55^th Division during the early hours of the 31^st July.

Casualties in the 19^th Battalion were 11 Officers and 435 Other Ranks 

The events of 30^th July 1916 were regarded at the time as Liverpool’s blackest day. There follows an extract from The History of the 89^th Brigade written by Brigadier General Ferdinand Stanley which gives an indication of the events of the day.

Guillemont

Well the hour to advance came, and of all bad luck in the world it was a thick fog; so thick that you couldn’t see more than about ten yards. It was next to impossible to delay the attack – it was much too big an operation- so forward they had to go. It will give some idea when I say that on one flank we had to go 1,750 yards over big rolling country. Everyone knows what it is like to cross enclosed country which you know really well in a fog and how easy it is to lose your way. Therefore, imagine these rolling hills, with no landmarks and absolutely unknown to anyone. Is it surprising that people lost their way and lost touch with those next to them? As a matter of fact, it was wonderful the way in which many men found their way right to the place we wanted to get to. But as a connected attack it was impossible.

The fog was intense it was practically impossible to keep direction and parties got split up. Owing to the heavy shelling all the Bosches had left their main trenches and were lying out in the open with snipers and machine guns in shell holes, so of course our fellows were the most easy prey.

It is so awfully sad now going about and finding so many splendid fellows gone.   

William was one of nearly 500 Liverpool Pals who fell on that day; he was initially declared as Missing in Action.

His father posted in the Liverpool Daily Post on 12^th October 1916, requesting information under the heading,

‘Rank and File Missing’ -   “Private William Osborne, K.L.R.  His father lives at 5 Dudley Road, Sefton Park.”

After nine months of anguish, William was eventually declared Killed in Action; his father posted in the Liverpool Echo on 17th April 1917:  

“Killed in action, previously reported missing, aged 22 years, William, the dearly-loved younger son of William Osborne and nephew of Mrs. C.(sic) Smith, 5 Dudley Road.” 

His death was confirmed also in the Liverpool Daily Post on Tuesday 01 May 1917: 

PREVIOUSLY REPORTED MISSING, NOW 

REPORTED KILLED.  

Liverpool R. - Osborne, 17677, W.;   

William was one of the many whose bodies were never found or identified, and he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. 

The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916. 

On 01st August 1932 the Prince of Wales and the President of France inaugurated the Thiepval Memorial in Picardy. The inscription reads: “Here are recorded the names of officers and men of the British Armies who fell on the Somme battlefields between July 1915 and March 1918 but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death.”

William was remembered on the first anniversary of his death in the Liverpool Echo on 30th July 1917, under the heading, “Lost At The Battle Of Guillemont”:

“In loving memory of Private William Osborne, K.L.R. (“Pals”), in his 21st year, killed in action July 30, 1916. 

Also on the second anniversary in 1918:

"In loving memory of Private William Osborne, "Pals" (K.L.R.), killed in action in his 21st year, at Guillemont, July 30, 1916. R.I.P."

The pension card shows his first dependent as his aunt, Mrs. Ellen Smith, 5 Dudley Road, Sefton Park. She was born in Liverpool on the 20th June 1853, the daughter of Francis and Mary (nee Palmer) Osborne and baptised Mary Ellen on the 27th June 1853 at St Patrick’s RC, Toxteth. The second dependent his father, Mr. William Osborne, 125 Roxburgh Street, Walton, Liverpool.  

In 1919 when information on William’s living relatives was supplied to the Army by his aunt Mrs. Ellen Smith, 60, his father’s sister, in his absence at sea, she declared his father’s address to be 5 Dudley Street, his mother was dead, his brother Francis W. Osborne, 30, Lieut, R.A.F., was in hospital in Brecon[shire?], and his sister Marion was a nun in Loughborough Convent.  (Marion died in Loughborough, aged 72, in 1965.) He had another aunt, ?. Russell, 54, in Cardiff, and herself, Ellen Smith, at 5 Dudley Road.  (There is a record for a Francis William Osborne, 2^nd Lieut. R.A.F.)

In 1920 the Army had difficulty locating William’s next of kin to dispose of the memorial plaque and scroll. They were informed by a neighbour that his aunt, Mrs. Smith, had died in the Smithdown Road Workhouse Hospital in March 1920, and that a brother of the deceased was in the employ of the Elder Dempster Line, Colonial House, Liverpool. Elder Dempster responded that they had no Francis Osborne in their employ. At the end of December 1920 Liverpool Police at Wavertree attempted to locate his father, but were informed that he had left the area six months previously, to live in the north end of Liverpool. 

William’s effects went to his father William, at 5 Dudley Road. William earned his three medals, which his brother Francis signed for on 07th November 1922.

His father is indeed in the north end of Liverpool and is found on the 1921 Census boarding with the Thomas family at 74 Hawthorne Road, Bootle. He is a widowed chief steward for the Elder Dempster Line, aged 62 years and 8 months. He was born in Liverpool on the 15th Sept 1857, the son of Francis and Mary (nee Palmer) Osborne and baptised on the 27th September 1857 at St Anne’s R.C. Church, Edge Hill, Liverpool. From this census information his family, in full, can be found living at Water Lane, Stoke Damerel, Plymouth. The head is R.N. Seaman Frank Osborne, aged 40, born in Ireland, his wife Mary(nee Palmer), aged 39 also born in Ireland. Their children are Ellen aged 9, born Liverpool, Jane aged 7, born Liverpool, William aged 5, born Liverpool, and Frank, aged 6 months born in Devonport.  

William Snr earned the Mercantile Marine Ribbon and Medal from service in the Great War, it is not known when he died. 

Sadly, William has not been found on any memorial.

We currently have no further information on William Bernard Freed Osborne, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.