Pte 57820 Harold Osborne

• Age: 21
• From: Stockton
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
• D.O.W Thursday 27th September 1917
• Commemorated at: Trois Arbres
  Panel Ref: I.Y.42

Harold Osborne was born on 18^th February 1896 in Stockton, the son of Alfred Osborne and his wife Margaret  (nee Moore), 2 Burdon Road, Sunderland.

NER Magazine gives age as 21. He had worked for the North Eastern Railway (NER) in Gateshead, Locomotive Cashier's Office as a clerk for four years. He had two brothers Alfred John and George William also employed by the NER at Gateshead who both and joined the forces.

The 1901 Census shows the family living at Railway Buildings, Tweedmouth, Berwick, Durham. His father, Alfred, is 42 years of age, and his occupation is shown as a locomotive foreman. His mother, Margaret, is aged 45, and has no occupation listed. The Census records record they have six children in the household; George William aged 18,employed as a railway clerk, Bertha aged 14, Ethel aged 12, Alfred John aged 10, Harold aged 5 and Hilda aged 3.

The 1911 Census shows the family living at 2 Burdon Road, Sunderland. His father, Alfred, is shown as 52 years of age, born in Derbyshire in 1859 and whose occupation is shown as a district locomotive foreman. His wife Margaret is aged 55, she was born 1856 in Crewe. They have been married for twenty nine years and have had seven children of which one had died. Those children in the household are recorded as; George William aged 28, born 1883 is a railway clerk, Ethel aged 22, born 1889 no occupation, Alfred John aged 19, born 1892  is a railway clerk, Harold aged 15, born 1896 and Hilda aged 13, born 1898 are both at school. 

Harold was educated at Bede Collegiate School in Sunderland.

He enlisted in Newcastle Upon Tyne and originally served as 392, Army Cyclist Corps before transferring to the 19^th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private  57820.

He died of wounds to his chest, face, arms, hands and knees at the Austrailian Casualty Clearing Station No2  on the 27^th September, 1917, aged 21, during the Third Battle of Ypres.

19^th Battalion War Diary for 26^th September 1917

Classes etc continued, good progress being made. Lt Col G. Rollo D.S.O. having returned from 89^th Inf. Brigade resumed command. The brigade Concert party “The Optimists” showed to the battalion in the evening. At night the usual working parties were provided. On the returning of one of the parties 2 O.R. were killed by a shell and 2 O.R. severely wounded by the same. The wounded men died from their wounds after being admitted to hospital.  

It is highly probable that Harold was one of the two other ranks referred to in the diary as being wounded by the shell.  

He now rests at Trois Arbres Cemetery, Steenwerck, France. (His headstone shows his age as 20)

Steenwerck village remained untouched for much of the First World War, but on 10 April 1918 it was captured by the Germans and remained in their possession until the beginning of October. Trois-Arbres passed into German hands a day later than Steenwerck, after a rearguard defence by the 34th Division. The site for Trois Arbres Cemetery was chosen for the 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station in July 1916, and Plot 1 and the earlier rows of Plot II, were made and used by that hospital until April 1918. A few further burials were made in the cemetery after the German withdrawal at the end of 1918 and after the Armistice, over 700 graves were brought into it from the battlefields of Steenwerck, Nieppe, Bailleul and Neuve-Eglise. Graves from the following graveyards were concentrated into Trois-Arbres Cemetery:-. DOUANE CEMETERY, NEUVE-EGLISE, at the Custom House on the road from Neuve-Eglise to Nieppe, contained the graves of 15 soldiers from Canada and four from the United Kingdom who fell in 1915-16. FORTRIE FARM CEMETERY, NEUVE-EGLISE, 1.6Kms West of the hamlet of Le Romarin, contained the graves of 27 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in November and December 1914. LINEN FACTORY CEMETERY, BAC-ST. MAUR. This was a row of graves in Steenwerck commune, in the angle formed by the river Lys, the road from Bac-St. Maur to Croix-du-Bac, and Edwards's Linen Factory. In it were buried 20 soldiers from the United Kingdom, one from India and seven Germans. There are now 1,704 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 435 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to ten casualties known or believed to be buried among them. The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.

His death was reported in the Sunderland Daily Echo on 31st October 1917

Since the last war list of Old Bedans was printed in the school magazine, the following casualties and the following distinctions have been announced: Killed in Action - Gunner(sic) Harold Osborne King's Liverpool Regiment. 

Also in the Berwick Advertiser on 02nd November 1917

Died of Wounds

OSBORNE - On 27th September at the Second Australian CC Station, Gunner(sic) Harold Osborne King's Liverpool's, aged 21 years, youngest and beloved son of Alfred and Margaret Osborne, 2 Burdon Road, Sunderland, late of Tweedmouth.

Soldiers Effects and Pension to his mother Margaret.

Harold is also commemorated on the following Memorials: 

Bede Collegiate School, Humbleton,

1914-1918 Roll of Honour at Thornhill United Methodist Church, Sunderland.

Grateful thanks are extednded to the National Railway Museum at York for their kind permission for use to use the photograph of Harold from their archives.

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