Name
Percy James Osborne (poss Osborn)
1899
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
11/09/1918
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
TF/208500
Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex Regiment)
20th Bn
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LONGUENESSE (ST. OMER) SOUVENIR CEMETERY
V. E. 21.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Not listed on the Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford,
Not on the Sawbridgeworth memorials,
Not on the Bishop's Stortford memorials
Pre War
Percy James Osborn was born in 1899 in Roydon a Hamlet in Essex to John and Martha Osborn and baptised on 9 July 1899 at St Peter, Roydon, Essex.
His mother died in 1902 and on the 1911 Census he was living with his widowed father and family at Roydon Hamlet, Essex where his father was a horse keeper on a farm and Percy was a schoolboy.
On enlistment he was living at 1 Bell Street, Sawbridgeworth and was employed as a joiner.
He enlisted in Hertford and seems to have added and added three years to his age.
Wartime Service
He initially served in the 1st/2nd Hertfordshire Regiment under Reg. No. 4990, and therefore enlisting between 24th May and 2nd June 1915. He was later transferred to the Royal Sussex Regiment under Reg. No. S/15502 and finally to the 20th Middlesex Regiment on 22 June 1918.
He embarked from Folkestone to Boulogne on 17 August 1916. He was wounded and said to be suffering from shell shock from 17 September 1916 but recovered and returned to duty,
He became ill in the field at the end August 1918 and died from cerebro spinal meningitis at New Zealand Stationary Hospital, Wisques, France.
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £15 and pay owing of £8 17s 10d.
His elder brother was Frank Osborne who also died.
His father was living at Parsonage Mill Farm, Bishops Stortford. His next of kin on pension records is recorded as Miss Agnes Martha Osborn (sister) of the same address. No pension was awarded to her.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, Douglas Coe
