Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Private F. A. Osborne, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, who was killed in action in Gallipoli in August 1915

1914-15 Star (6378 Pte. F. A. Osborne, R. War. R.); British War and Victory Medals (6378 Pte. F. A. Osborne, R. War. R.), with a named card box of issue, good very fine (3) £180-220

Frederick Arthur Osborne, a native of Netherfield, Nottinghamshire, landed at ‘V’ Beach, Cape Helles in the 9th (Service) Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment on 13 July 1915. Less than a month later, on 10 August, he was killed in action during his Battalion’s attack on Koja Chemen Tepe, having been among those to have reached the crest but then fallen in a subsequent Turkish counter attack; the unit’s war diary records ‘it was impossible to hold the line with no supports immediately available ... the trenches were enfiladed by machine-gun fire and our men mown down.’ Resultant casualties were heavy, namely four officers and 44 other ranks killed, four officers and 147 other ranks wounded, and one officer and 117 other ranks missing: indeed the unit’s war diary entry for the 11th noted an effective strength of ‘officers nil, other ranks 288’, command having devolved to Sergeant-Major Collicott.