Lieutenant-Colonel R.E. Osborne-Smith
1st Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment

I was brought before the Colonel (R.E. Osborne-Smith) and accused of ill treating an officer POW. I was questioned and explained exactly what had happened. The Colonel listened carefully and then said, ‘I reprimand you for ill-treatment in the field, to a prisoner of war’. He then got up, shook me by the hand and said ‘Roy, why didn’t you shoot the bastard?’

(Quoted from Lt. Roy Humphreys in Rex Fellows, Fragments of Battle, 92)

Born on 18 July 1908 in Saint Helier, Jersey, Robert Edward Osborne-Smith was a cricket player and commissioned officer in the Northamptonshire Regiment since 1929. During the 1930s, he played cricket for the Indian Army, the Egypt national team and the British Army. He became adjutant in 1937 but by 1944 he had been posted 4th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment as second-in-command.

Continue reading →