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Son of Thomas Ridley Oswald and Wilhelmina Catherine Oswald; husband of Catherine Mary Oswald, of St. Winning, Weymouth, Dorset. He was educated at Clifton College in Bristol from July 1890 to July 1892 and at Lancing College where he was in School House from November 1892 to April 1895. He left Lancing for Rugby School where he was in Mr. Donkin's House and where in 1898, he won the Wrigley Cup single handed by winning four events, the Quarter Mile, Weight, High Jump and Hurdles. He left Rugby in 1898 and on the 29th of March he was granted a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 6th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers (Militia). The following year he entered the regular army and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion Leicestershire Regiment on the 15th of November 1899. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 2nd of August 1901. He saw service in Egypt and in South Africa where he resigned from his regiment on the 17th of July 1901 and on the same day transferred to the 3rd Railway Pioneer Regiment later becoming their Adjutant. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 2nd of August 1901. He was mentioned in the Lord Kitchener's despatches of the 8th of March 1902 and was awarded the Distinguished Serve Order (London Gazette 31st of October 1902) for "services during operations in South Africa". This is thought to have been for the rescue of a native scout on the 31st of January 1902 while the enemy were in close pursuit for a number of miles. He married on the 7th of March 1905 at St John's Church, Weymouth in Dorset to Catherine Mary Yardley (nee Scott) and they had three daughters, Theodora Betty, Ambrosine Mary, and Patricia Catherine Digby who was born in 1914. In 1906 he served as a Captain and Adjutant of Royston's Horse during the Natal Rebellion and was wounded in the fighting in Zululand in June 1906. He moved to Bulawayo in Rhodesia and worked in mining until he returned to the UK on board the SS "Garth Castle", landing at Southampton on the 30th of April 1914. He was a keen horseman, polo player and big game hunter. Following the outbreak of war he joined the 5th Dragoon Guards Special Reserve as a Lieutenant on the 7th of August 1914 and landed in France a week later on the 14th. He saw action at Mons, on the Marne and at Messines where he was wounded on the 31st of October and was evacuated back to England. In May 1915 he was eager to return to the front and was attached to the Royal Field Artillery, being promoted to Captain on the 11th of May before seeing more heavy fighting around Ypres with 3rd Division. From June until the 1st of December 1915 he served on the Staff, being an Aide de Camp to Major General J.A.L. Haldane and served as Assistant Provost Marshall from the 16th of September, for which he was mentioned in despatches in June 1916. In December 1915 he was appointed as Second in Command of the 12th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment, becoming Commanding Officer in March 1916 when he was promoted to Temporary Major on the 14th of March. He took part in the actions at St Eloi and in the early fighting in the Battle of the Somme. On the 14th of July 1916 the battalion was detailed to attack German positions at Caterpillar Valley on the ridge between Bazentin-le Petit and Longueval. They moved into position the night before and at around 3am the artillery began a one hour bombardment of the German positions in preparation for the assault. At 3.25am the artillery lifted from the German first line onto their second line and the West Yorks left their trenches, advancing briskly towards the enemy lines. At 4.30am Major Oswald sent a message back to Brigade Headquarters that his battalion had taken all its objectives in the German first line and had seized part of the second line as well. He reported that casualties had been heavy and that he needed reinforcements. At 5.26am another message came back that the battalion had gained all its objectives and that consolidation of those gains was underway. At about 7pm Lieutenant Colonel Oswald, who had returned to Battalion Headquarters to rest, was hit in the chest by a shell band following a misfire from a British gun. He had earlier noted that the same gun was wrongly sighted and had himself issued orders earlier in the day that it should be corrected. ref. South African Roll of Honour 1914-1918 |
