1859 –1940
A rural postman
Relatives
Unmarked grave James Osborn (1859-1940)
James was born in 1859 in Northchurch to single mother Martha Osborn and baptised 8 November.
At the time of the 1861 census Martha and James were living with her widowed grandmother Ann Brackley in one of the alms houses in the High Street.
Martha married labourer Andrew Graham and in 1871 they were recorded living in one of the “Church Houses” in Gossoms End. Martha was a straw plaiter and James, aged only 11, was already working as a labourer.
In 1875, aged 17 and out of work, James enlisted in the Militia which gives us a description. He was just 5 foot 4 inches tall with light brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion. He passed the medical examination with flying colours. Records do not show how long he remained as a volunteer.
James married Lizzie Garment in Berkhamsted in 1884 and Martha Mary (1886), James Ernest (1887) and Elsie Mabel (1891) were all born in Northchurch.
In 1891 they were living in Orchard End, Northchurch with Lizzie’s widowed step-mother Mary Dickens.
Percy Harold (1893), Frank John (1896), Arthur Henry (1898) and Marjorie Agnes and Dorothy Annie, twins born in 1900, completed the family.
By 1901 James had become a rural postman and the family lived at 7, Cross Oak Road.
Tragically, Elsie Mabel died in January 1909 aged 18 and her brother Frank in September that year aged 14 at 8, Cross Oak Road They are both buried in this cemetery.
In 1911 James and Lizzie were still at number 8 with Ernest, Percy, Dorothy, Marjorie and Arthur.
By 1921 the couple had moved to “Roughcote”, 15, Queen’s Road where James wold remain for the rest of his life. Aged 61, he was described in the census as a temporary postman, working for the GPO in Berkhamsted. Arthur was employed as a clerk at the labour Exchange and Dorothy worked at John Dickinson’s in Apsley as did her twin Marjorie who, with her husband Joseph Smith, was living with her parents.
Lizzie died in 1937 and the 1939 Register shows James living at number 15 with their daughter Dorothy, now married to William Ostler.
James died at 15, Queens Road in March 1940 aged 80.