Background
He was born in Deniliquin to mining engineer Alfred John Osborne and schoolteacher Jane McCoy.
He was born in Deniliquin to mining engineer Alfred John Osborne and schoolteacher Jane McCoy.
He left school at fourteen to work at a mine smelters at Captains Flat, before moving to Sydney in 1902 to work as a shop assistant. In 1910 he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the Labor member for Paddington, serving until the Holman government appointed him to the Meat Board in 1919. Osborne died at Roseville in 1961.
He was a founding member of the Shop Assistants" Union, serving as secretary from 1902 to 1907 and later as president