James Osbourne VC • Wigginton

The church of St Bartholomew is Grade II* listed. It's earliest parts date to the early 12th century, and has connections to the Knights Hospitalers. It has 13th and 15th century additions. It was restored in 1881 and had further alterations in the 1970s.

Buried in the churchyard here is James Osborne, recipient of the Victoria Cross.

He was born on April 13th 1857 in thr village and served as a Private in 2nd Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment. It was while serving in the First Boer War he was awarded his medal for gallantry.

On 22nd Fed 1881 at Wesselstroom he rode out under heavy fire from a party of 42 Boer to recover a wounded comrade. The injured man, Private Mary's, was carried to safety and returned to camp. 

Osborne survived the war and after leaving the army found work as a labourer on a nearby Estate. He continued this humble profession until 1913 when he suffered a stroke that left him partially paralysed. He died in 1928 at the age of 70 and was buried here. 

His original headstone was recently replaced after funds were raised for a new one.

 

Sadly his VC was lost during the Second World War, after the Belfast Blitz in 1941. 

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Also buried here is Sapper Albert James Penn.

Albert was born in 1911 and in September 1940 he joined the Royal Engineers. 

He was killed in a road accident on 4th December 1942, aged just 31. 

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