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Legion campaign funds headstone for VC winner
During the Boer War a young Wigginton man risked his life by charging on horseback into heavy enemy gunfire to save a friend's life.
Private James Osborne's bravery was rewarded with the highest accolade a soldier can receive - the Victoria Cross (VC) in 1881.
Today he is one of only five VC winners buried in Hertfordshire.
However, over the years his gravestone in Saint Bartholomew's churchyard, Wigginton, has weathered and begun to deteriorate.
This prompted Berkhamsted Royal British Legion to launch a three-year fundraising campaign to replace it.
At the end of March the Legion reached its target of 2,000 and a specialist stonemason created a new headstone for the hero.
Also during the campaign, Private Osborne's granddaughter Rhoda Whitehouse, 76, who lives in Berkhamsted, was tracked down.
She said: "I remember my mother was very proud of her father and that he used to wear his Victoria Cross all the time."
"My mother also told me that when he came back from war he bought a monkey called Joko with him, but his mother told him straightaway it had to go, it was far too boisterous!"
Private Osborne was 23 when, on February 22, 1881, he rode, under extremely heavy fire, towards a party of more than 40 Boers.
He then picked up Private Mayes, who had been lying wounded, and carried him safely back into the camp at Wesselstroom, South Africa.
He was serving in the Northamptonshire regiment.
When he returned to Wigginton at the end of the war he took a job on the vast Rothschild Estate as a labourer.
Unable to read or write, he worked there for 26 years.
In 1913 a stroke left him partially paralysed and he died in 1928 at the age of 71.
Brian Davies, secretary of the Legion's Hertfordshire Group Five, said: "We all agreed that action needed to be taken urgently to restore the memorial for one of our national heroes to a dignified standard."
Although fundraising was not easy, a number of British Legion branches within Dacorum and Chesham held raise money.
Wigginton Parish Council also granted cash and various military associations gave their support to the cause.
The appeal was such a success that there are still surplus funds, which will be used to set up a trust, with the participation of Wigginton Church and Wigginton School, to maintain Private Osborne's headstone for the foreseeable future.
The Legion is holding a dedication ceremony in honour of Private Osborne at the Wigginton church, on Sunday, June 8, from 11am.
Mr Davies said: "We hope to involve the younger generation in order to keep the spirit of Remembrance alive."
The First Boer War: 16 December 1880 - 23 March 1881 begun after Sir Theophilus Shepstone annexed the Transvaal (the South African Republic) for the British in 1877 after the Anglo-Zulu War.
The Boers protested and in 1880 revolted. After a British force was heavily defeated at the Battle of Majuba Hill in February 1881, the British government of Gladstone gave the Boers self-government in the Transvaal under a theoretical British oversight.
The Victoria Cross (VC) is awarded as the highest recognition for valour 'in the face of the enemy' available for members of the British and Commonwealth armed forces of any rank in any service, and civilians under military command.
It is also the highest award in the British Honours system.
The 35 mm cross patte bears a crown surmounted by a lion, and the inscription FOR VALOUR. This was originally to have been FOR BRAVERY, but was changed on the recommendation of Queen Victoria, who thought some might erroneously consider that only the recipients of the VC had been brave in battle.
The recipient's name, rank, number and unit are engraved on the back of the suspension bar, and the date, of the act for which it was awarded, on the back of the cross.
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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