Background
Osborne was born in Orange, New South Wales, and educated at North Sydney High School and Sydney Church of England Grammar School.
Osborne was born in Orange, New South Wales, and educated at North Sydney High School and Sydney Church of England Grammar School.
He graduated with a degree in law from the University of Sydney.
He joined the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1938, and with the outbreak of World World War II, he was seconded to the Royal Navy in 1940. He was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross in 1940 for "bravery and devotion to duty" while assisting the evacuation of forces from Norway as a sub-lieutenant on the Street Loman, an armed trawler. He then served on the HMS Gentian, HMS Peacock and HMS Vanquisher escorting ships between the United States and Canada and the United Kingdom in the Battle of the Atlantic.
He crossed the Atlantic 22 times and was the only Australian to rise to the command of a Royal Navy destroyer during the war.
In 1945 a bar was added to his Distinguished Service Cross for sinking of a German U-boat. Osborne was elected as the member for Evans at the December 1949 election as a Liberal.
He was Minister for Customs and Excise from January to October 1956, Minister for Air from October 1956 to December 1960 and Minister for Repatriation from December 1960 to his defeat at the December 1961 election. Following his defeat he returned to his legal practice, but continued to play a major role in the New South Wales branch of the Liberal Party and was its president from 1967 to 1970.
He supported a change in Liberal Party policy in favour of support for state aid for independent schools, a policy adopted by the three major national political parties by the 1972 election.