VISITING OFFICER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 196, 20 August 1931, Page 12

VISITING OFFICER

CAREER IN THE NAVY HEALTH TRIP AS A.B. A visitor to Wellington last week was Lieutenant-Commander C. G. Osborne, who served in the Royal Navy during the Great War, and had considerable experience in the Navy after the war was over. Lieutenant-Commander Osborne suffered a nervous breakdown some time ago as the result of his war experience, and was advisod toi take a sea trip, so he signed, on the Orient liner Oronsay for a trip as an A. 8., and now he has taken a trip in a similar capacity on the motor-ship Rangitata, which sailed from Wellington on Saturday for Southampton and London, via Panama. Lieutenant-Com-mander Osborne is engaged as an electrical contractor in his civil occupation, and is receiving financial assist ance from the Electrical Contractors ’ Association during his health trips, lie thinks that by the timo he returns to | England his health will be restored suf I ficicntly to allow him to resume his i usual occupation. Lieutenant-Commander Osborne join-1 ed the Navy as a seaman in 1898. He rose to be a petty officer, and was very interested in torpedo work. When an : Act of Parliament was passed in 1913! making it possible for men from the, ranks to rise to be officers, Mr Osborne was recommended for promotion. After being in the Queen Elizabeth ini the Dardanelles. Mr Osborne was pro-1 moted to be mate, a position in the Navy equivalent to that of a sub-lieu-tenant. Because of his expert knowledge of torpedo work and searchlights, Mr Osborne was detailed to give lec tures on shore and on the ships, and so left the Queen Elizabeth. In 1917 he | went to Russia in the ship City of Marseilles, and was engaged during the time he was in Russia with other naval officers in training Russian ratings When the Russian Revolution broke out the Bolsheviks refused to pay the expenses incurred in the overhaul and survey of the Russian cruiser Askold at Plymouth, so the naval men were ordered to seize her and take her back to England. The Russian crew was sent ashore, and their places were taken by British seamen. Under Russian colours, the cruiser sailed out of Archangel, and when throe miles out these colours were hauled down and British colours substituted. The Askold, which had taken part ir the bombardment of Port Arthur in 1905, and had been the only Russian representative in the fleet at the Dardanelles, was subsequently re-named the Glory IV. and is since believed to have been broken up In the trip to Russia, Mr Osborne was a torpedo lieutenant. Mr Osborne returned to England in 1919, and until 1923 was on board H.M.S. Weymouth when she was doing patrol work in South America. In 1924 he was appointed a lieutenant-comman-der. and was given command of the gunboat Sedgefly. and did duty in the vicinity of Mesopotamia. Tie was in charge of the naval demonstration when King Feisal was crowned King of Irak, on that occasion having five gunboats under his control. Hp returned to England in 1926. and entered civil life. Prior tn the Russian Revolution. Lieu-tenant-Commander Osborne was granted the Russian Order of Sr. Anne.