[ { "id": 210622, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1985", "page_number": 229, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "210\n\nTHE COUNTRY BOY WHO DIED FOR HONG KONG*\n\nLargely, I suppose, because I experienced over four years of active service and action myself — in the deserts of North Africa and Italy in World War II — when I have seen the remains of fortifications and slit trenches on the hills of Hong Kong, I have often pondered on the battle, in 1941, for this \"outpost of Empire\".\n\nWhen I joined the Hong Kong Government, in 1954, the war was still fresh in people's minds. Time has passed quickly, however, and there is a danger that brave deeds will disappear forever.\n\nWhile the courage shown by Company Sergeant Major (CSM) John (Jack) Robert Osborn has been recorded, few people know much about him. Indeed it was not until 1982 that I learned he was born in the County of Norfolk, England, not far from my home town.\n\nThe Village of Foulden is an unspoiled, peaceful place, but at the turn of this century it was even more isolated.\n\nFor a number of years a group of anonymous, horse-drawn caravans made its way, every year, from the Fen Country to tiny Foulden. The gypsies, who occupied these \"homes-on-wheels\", earned their livings as dealers, and by making clothes-pegs and rock (a kind of confectionery). They also managed to obtain part-time work on the land, for instance at harvest time. While no villager got to know them well, the Osborn family always spent longer in Foulden than the other Romanies.\n\n* Plate 11.\n\nAcknowledgements\n\nThe author is grateful to many people, too numerous to name individually, for their assistance in the research and preparation of this article. This article was first published on 22nd December, 1985 in the Sunday Morning Post and is reprinted with the author's permission.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210624, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1985", "page_number": 231, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "212\n\nOsborn was, however, different. He had faced death before, as a 17-year-old seaman at the Battle of Jutland, in 1916, and, later, in the Royal Marines on the Western Front. His life had been hard, firstly in rural England, and, later, as a casual worker, during the depression years, on farms and railroads in Manitoba and Saskatchewan in Canada.\n\nHe joined the Canadian militia in 1933 and was promoted rapidly. Osborn was cool and tough; the kind of man you are glad to have on your side in a tight corner; a natural leader.\n\nWhilst most of the Grenadiers may have been little more than raw recruits, and lacking in experience under fire, Osborn's calmness had a steadying effect. Under his leadership, his men were determined and fought like battle-hardened, regular soldiers. Osborn was everywhere displaying courage and inspiring his company, and although it is said by some that he led a bayonet charge, it ran into a hail of fire from Japanese entrenched machine guns.\n\nThe Canadians, who by now had been reduced to about 30, clung fiercely to the bare, pitted hillside, and twice they beat off counterattacks, and always Osborn was there. However, in spite of great courage, the position became untenable, and the Grenadiers were finally forced back by superior firepower. Osborn then covered their withdrawal, at one stage single-handed, engaging the enemy and exposing himself to heavy fire.\n\nBy mid-afternoon, the dozen men that survived were exhausted and entirely surrounded, but, although the Japanese were within a few yards of the Canadians' position, they continued to fight doggedly on.\n\nAt that stage, hand-grenades began to fall among them, and, on several occasions, Osborn flung them back at the Japanese. Finally, however, a grenade fell which Osborn could not grab in time, and, after shouting a warning and pushing others away, he threw his body over it, thus saving the lives of his few remaining comrades. Osborn was killed instantly, but the six men who were with him survived.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210627, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1985", "page_number": 234, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "215\n\nOsborn knew his job although he tended to stick to the book: he did not lose his temper, nevertheless he stood no nonsense.\n\nManchester continued:\n\n\"He was both strict and straight, and he did his best to set an example and to 'make something' of his men.”\n\nOsborn was also said to be ‘gentlemanly' and a good ‘mess man'.\n\nAs Manchester pointed out:\n\n\"Jack Osborn was a moderate drinker and not a 'womaniser'.\"\n\nIn short, while as a sergeant major he had few friends, he was looked up to by his men.\n\nHaving 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.\n\nIt 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.\n\nD.D. WATERS", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 } ]