Name Edward Osborne Role Mayor of Hythe | Died January 21, 1939 | |
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Edward Osborne, MLC, JP (21 January 1861 – 21 January 1939) was a British businessman and politician. He was the secretary for the Hongkong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company (1889–1913), member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (1906–1913), and Mayor of Hythe (1922–24).
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Biography
Osborne was born on 2 January 1861. He was a son of Charles Osborne and wife Ann Geary and grandson of Sir Henry Osborne, 11th Baronet and second wife Elizabeth Harding. He was educated at St. Anne's and Streatham Hill. He entered a solicitor firm in Durham after graduation. In 1880, he left the firm and entered the Peninsular and Oriental Company and was sent to the Hong Kong offices in on 11 May 1882.
On 20 April 1889, Osborne joined the Hongkong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company. As secretary he encountered innumerable difficulties arising out of the organised attempts of the Chinese guilds to oppose the progress of the foreigner. Osborne was also director of the Dairy Farm, Steam Laundry and was member of the consulting committee of the A. S. Watson & Co. and the China Borneo Company. He also helped forming the Star Ferry Company and placing double-ended boats on the services between Hong Kong and Kowloon. He was responsible for building the Hong Kong Club. He also recused the Hongkong Hotel Company from imminent bankruptcy at the request of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank and the mortgagees, by placing it upon a dividend-paying basis.
Osborne was made Justice of the Peace and later became member of the Sanitary Board in 1900. During his service in the Sanitary Board, he helped fighting the plague. He also exterminated rats and enforced rules of health and cleanliness at the premises of his company. He also suggested setting up bathing places in the city which were carried out in 1913. In May 1906, Osborne succeeded W. J. Gershom to be member of the Legislative Council and its Financial Committee and the Public Works Committee. In 1913, he was appointed to a committee to investigate the Green Island Cement Co..
Osborne retired from the Wharf Company in 1913 and left Hong Kong in the SS Empress of Japan to his family in Hythe. He later became Mayor of Hythe between 1922 and 1924.
Personal life
Osborne fought in the First World War between 1916 and 1918 in France. He was fond of outdoor sports especially rowing, riding, shooting, fishing and walking. He had walked from Peking just after the Boxer Rebellion, across Korea, through parts of Japan and from Hankow to Canton by way of Kweilin. He also walked over most of the New Territories.
Edward Osborne married on 21 February 1895 Phyllis Eliza Whitley (? - 23 February 1966), daughter of George Whitley of Weybridge, Surrey, and had five children: