A Nanaimo war veteran and centenarian, said to be the last surviving crew member of the HMS Hood, is being mourned by family and friends.
Victor Osborne died Feb. 1 at age 106. A fixture at Remembrance Day ceremonies in Nanaimo, he was born in London, England, on Nov. 11, 1918, the end of the First World War. Serving with the Royal Navy and its counterparts in Australia and New Zealand, he saw time on the British battle cruiser the HMS Hood and also saw action on D-Day.
Hugh Nicholson, friend and former Nanaimo Daily News publisher, said he first met Osborne at a Remembrance Day ceremony at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 256 in 2012. He learned that Osborne joined the British navy when he was 15 years old and not only fought in Europe, but in the Pacific as well.
Nicholson described Osborne's memory as "photographic," with the ability to remember experiences down to the minutest detail. He took part in the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, something he considered one of his worst war experiences.
"He said, 'I piloted [a] landing craft onto the beach and when the gate dropped, eight guys were immediately killed … The Germans had it lined up with the machine gun and that was my fault. I'll never forget that.' And I said … 'You had no idea that this was going to happen.' And he said, ‘Well, it shook me up so bad I couldn't go back, so they had to reassign me to another duty that day,'" Nicholson recounted.
Osborne also talked of tales of pranks played on the Hood.
"They would get these little guys, like Victor, to climb into these (torpedo) tubes and clean them out because they were full of grease and everything else … they'd have these plungers similar to what you see in the old cannons … once they got somebody like Victor in there cleaning it, they would take these plungers and literally push them out of the tube into the ocean as a joke," said Nicholson.
Osborne was a regular at Branch 256 and was the oldest veteran both at that branch and in the zone. Lew Forth, a former branch president, said Osborne felt great satisfaction about his military career.
"He was quite proud of his service, all three of the navies he served in," said Forth. "He was very proud of his full life and his adventures. He was the last living crew member that sailed on HMS Hood. As a matter of fact, he left the Hood just a month or so before the Bismarck blew it up."
Osborne had American citizenship and was an electrician who worked at Disneyland and was in charge of a crew that helped build the monorail there. It was a mode of transportation he was passionate about.
"I remember when the debates went on about bringing back Island rail to Vancouver Island," Nicholson said. "Victor came into the office one day, and [we talked about] how Vancouver Island should have a monorail, not a traditional rail, and how it was so much cheaper and more efficient … he may as well have just stepped out of his last day of work at Disneyland, because he was so well-versed and knew everything, the technology and how they did it."
Speaking from the Lower Mainland, Gary Osborne, Victor's nephew, said his uncle will be missed, and will be remembered for more than his military service.
"He really loved working outside. He loved working in the garden and that helped his health as well, being outdoors … He would go up a flight of stairs faster than me," Gary said. "[He was] a force of nature, really, just a very strong personality … God, he was tough."
A memorial is being planned at Branch 256, with details being formulated.
