Arthur Hamilton Osborne was born on Tuesday, 6th November 1894 in Stoke Newington, London and baptised just over two weeks later on Sunday, 25th November. He was the first of two sons born to Arthur Edward Osborne and Alice Williams and he was known fondly as Ted. His younger brother Reginald Thomas was born three years later in 1897, and he too served during the war with the Royal Engineers and survived to be demobbed in 1919.

When Ted was born, the family lived at 17 Woodlea Road, Stoke Newington and his father Arthur worked as a Sorting Clerk and Telegraphist for the General Post Office. Arthur was continuing a long tradition of postal workers in the Osborne family. Ted’s Grandfather Thomas had been a Grocer and the Postmaster for Hemel Hempstead, with a shop in Alexandra Road and then on the High Street in Hemel Hempstead for over thirty years. No fewer than five of Ted’s Aunts and Uncles worked in the postal business.

The family had moved to Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire by 1897 where Ted’s brother Reginald was born. In 1901 however, Ted was living with his Grandmother Eliza at Crescent Road, Hemel Hempstead whilst his parents and brother where resident in Aylesbury where his father worked. Indeed, Ted remained with his Grandmother and his Aunt Minnie until he was sixteen, only returning to live with his parents when his Grandmother died in 1910. During his time in Hemel Hempstead he was an active and popular member of the Boxmoor troop of the newly founded (1908) Boy Scouts and was one of its original members. He was well known throughout the town.

By 1911 young Ted was working but surprisingly, not for the Post Office; instead was apprenticed to the Drapers trade and worked for the Mutual Insurance Society based in Cheapside, London. In 1912 when he was eighteen, he enlisted in the Territorial Force (TF) with the Royal Buckinghamshire Yeomanry joining ‘B’ Squadron at Aylesbury. He may have been motivated by his Father’s TF service with the Signal Company Royal Engineers which he had joined in 1908 aged thirty-five. Indeed, Arthur served with Division H.Q. throughout the War attaining the rank of Serjeant and finally being demobbed in 1919.

On the outbreak of war Ted, like many in the TF, was called up as a reservist and volunteered for overseas service with the Royal Bucks and was appointed to the 1/1st Battalion. Initially, the Battalion was concentrated in Berkshire and on the 5th August, joined the 1st Mounted Division. On the 2nd September as part of the 2nd South Midland Mounted Brigade it was transferred to the 2nd Mounted Division and in mid-November it moved with the division to Norfolk on coastal defence duties.

Ted remained in Norfolk until the following spring when the Division was mobilised and sent to the Middle East. In April 1915, the 2nd Mounted Division moved to Egypt arriving at Alexandria between 19th and 21st April and was then posted to Cairo by the middle of May. The regiment was dismounted in August 1915 to take part in the Gallipoli Campaign and immediately sailed for Turkey.

It landed at "A" Beach, Suvla Bay on the 18th August before advancing to ‘Chocolate Hill’ two days later. Ted with his comrades then saw action in the attack on ‘Scimitar Hill’. This was the largest single-day attack ever mounted by the Allies at Gallipoli, involving three divisions. The purpose was to remove the immediate Ottoman threat from the exposed Suvla landing and to link with the ANZAC sectors to the south. Launched on the 21st August 1915, it proved to be a costly failure.

Around 5:00 p.m. the troops of the 2nd Mounted Division were ordered forward from their reserve position on Lala Baba and advanced, marching across the bed of a dry salt lake. The 5,000 men of the five brigades formed in columns by regiment and, marching in extended order, were easy targets for the shrapnel. Most of them halted in the cover of Green Hill west of Scimitar Hill, but Brigadier-General Lord Longford led his 2nd South Midland Mounted Brigade in a charge over Green Hill and up to the summit of Scimitar Hill. Lord Longford was cut off and killed and the yeomanry too were driven from the summit.

The attack at Scimitar Hill was the last attempt by the British to advance at Suvla. The front line remained between Green Hill and Scimitar Hill for the remainder of the campaign until the evacuation in December 1915. In all the allies suffered over 5000 casualties in the action.

Ted survived the attack, but he was unfortunately killed by shrapnel only a week later, on Saturday 25th August 1915, whilst in a dug-out near "Chocolate Hill. His death was reported in the Hemel Gazette a month after he was killed.

Ted is Remembered with Honour in Green Hill Cemetery, Turkey, where he is interred in Plot II F 26.

He was 20 years old when he died.

Ted was eligible for the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.