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Osborn knew his job although he tended to stick to the book: he did not lose his temper, nevertheless he stood no nonsense.
Manchester continued:
"He was both strict and straight, and he did his best to set an example and to 'make something' of his men.”
Osborn was also said to be ‘gentlemanly' and a good ‘mess man'.
As Manchester pointed out:
"Jack Osborn was a moderate drinker and not a 'womaniser'."
In short, while as a sergeant major he had few friends, he was looked up to by his men.
Having walked in the Tai Tam Country Park many times, with instructions from Harry Atkinson (he was just over the ridge, so he told me, on the day of the battle), I found the location where, 44 years before, Osborn and his brave band made their last stand. It is situated on a knoll, which is now overgrown with bushes, at the foot of Jardine's Lookout, not far from Stanley Gap.
It was a lovely, peaceful December day when I visited the place, although there was a considerable amount of building construction going on on the hill opposite. But it was easy to believe that, somewhere on that hill, was a fitting place for the remains of a hero to lie.
D.D. WATERS