Osborne Alec William

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Biografie:
ALEC WILLIAM OSBORNE (1896-
A. W. OSBORNE was born on June I, 1896, at Chipping Camden in Gloucestershire, and was educated at the grammar school there, his father being headmaster. He joined the Westminster Bank and remained with them until his retirement in 1958.
He was a man of very wide interests, passionately fond of anything to do with country life; gardening, the study of birds, and fishing were his particular interests. He had been a fine games player, particularly of hockey and squash; he played hockey for the Dulwich Hockey Club, the United Banks, and at one time for Surrey.
He was very fond of music and had a most catholic taste in reading ; he was a perfectionist in all he undertook, and his interest in the English language was immense.
His first visit to the Alps was in 1927 and for almost every year up to 1939 he went out to some district Alpes Maritimes, Pralognan, Valais, Oberland, Mont Blanc. He joined the club in 1942
Lord Hunt writes:
I met Bill Osborne in 1930, when I went to call on him at his mother's house in Merstham to discuss plans for an Alpine season that summer. The introduction had been made through his sister, Mabel, who had taught me at my preparatory school: I remember his genial grin and firm handshake as he paused from digging a flower bed on my arrival; he was wearing a new pair of climbing boots and explained that he '\vas breaking them in for the Alps.
We had some good climbs together that year in the Dauphine, and from that time I joined his group of mountaineering friends in the Lake District and North Wales. When I married in 1936, Bill was my staunch supporter as best man, and I still treasure a silver cigarette case, with his initials and those of the others, engraved upon it as a wedding gift.
Since those days, our ways parted and our meetings became fewer and more fleeting. Bill became a godparent to our eldest daughter when she was born in Darjeeling in 1938 and this provided another happy link between us. I was particularly sorry a few years ago when, as we were about to begin a climb together on a familiar cliff in North Wales, Bill complained of pain in his arm and had to give up; it was perhaps the first sign of his final illness.
But Bill was one of those people whose loyalties and friendship are not withdrawn by absence; I found him just the same whenever we met, and the gap in time and distance seemed of no consequence. So it was, when I last called on him and Betty some months ago. We talked of old times and old friends, and the years dissolved as we talked. His impish sense of humour had not deserted him either, even in his serious illness.
I feel certain that Bill will have left in the minds and memories of all those who knew him, as he has with me, the image of a man who loved people and loved life.
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 74, 1968, Seite 136-137


Geboren am:
01.06.1896
Gestorben am:
1968