#4535 Private Richard Henry Osborne
1/1ST BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, OXFORD & BUCKINGHAMSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY
BACK IN THE MIDDLE OF the battlefield, with the OG Lines finally conquered, the plan now was not to push eastwards, but north toward Mouquet Farm and then on to Thiepval, isolating it from this direction instead of repeating the eastward thrust that had failed so dismally on 1st July. The farm, which was to become a notorious spot known as ‘Mucky Farm’ to the Allied troops nearby, had been an advance HQ for the Germans prior to the battle and was one of the listed objectives that British troops had got nowhere near to on the opening day of the Somme campaign. By now it had been fairly knocked about, but was ‘protected by almost every barrier against attack that could be devised by human ingenuity’. In addition, the Germans had constructed tunnels around their trenches in the area, leading well into no-man’s-land. ‘The system was well devised, and many weeks passed before it was understood in its completeness by the Allied forces.’
The only son of a coast watcher from St Ives, Cornwall, Richard Osborne was a 31-year-old tin dresser born and educated in the village of Nancledra, some 3 miles inland. He enlisted in 1916, after the advent of conscription, and was another of the reinforcements arriving on the Somme, reaching the front in mid-July to serve with a Buckinghamshire battalion.
Richard’s outfit had not been involved in the initial assault in the Pozières sector, playing a supporting role, but with the division having sustained nearly 3,000 casualties, it was withdrawn from the line at the end of July. Now, just two weeks later, Richard and the rest of the Buckinghamshire men were about to be sent for again to take on a troublesome objective to the north-east of Pozières and on the left of the Australians, who faced the ruins of Mouquet Farm. Skyline Trench was priceless because, as its name suggested, it commanded a comprehensive view from the top of a spur. British troops had got into it, but the German artillery had them marked and all but two small garrisons had to withdraw down the other side of the slope to evade enemy shellfire. When the inevitable counter-attack came therefore, most of them were overrun in their small numbers and the British lost almost the whole trench again.
Attempts to retake it failed and on 14th August Richard Osborne’s battalion was ordered up to help push the line northwards to come up level with Mouquet Farm. Their journey into the fray was difficult enough. Such was the barrage that had pummelled the top of the ridge that they were forced continuously to climb over banks of earth churned up by shellfire. After this tiring journey, Richard and his fellow men moved up to attack communication trenches at 10pm, laden with bombs on their way towards the enemy.
They worked up these trenches effectively, chucking their haul of explosives and, after some fierce hand-to-hand fighting, had cleared most of Skyline Trench itself by dawn on the 15th. The trenches Richard found himself in were a state, having been assaulted consistently by artillery. The German infantry had not put up much of a fight. Apart from the throwing of a few bombs, the enemy mostly ran away down the reverse slope of the hill and away from the Buckinghamshire men.
By the middle of the afternoon though, the new British occupants had had to withdraw back to the heads of the communication trenches. As of midday the Germans had laid down a three-hour bombardment of shells of all calibres and mortars. ‘It seemed as if all the destructive power of Germany had got to work on this trench.’ It was the heaviest barrage that the battalion had ever endured and the Buckinghamshire men suffered almost 200 casualties. Any further attempt during the day to conquer Skyline Trench got nowhere. Killed while bomb throwing, 31-year-old Richard Osborne was never seen or heard from again. His body, if recovered, was never identified and he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Pier & Face 10a/10d.