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Sudden Death in Church.
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News reached Newbury on Monday morning of the particularly sudden death of Mr. Richard Osmond of Reading on the previous day.
Since he relinquished farming eight years ago, Mr. Osmond has been residing at Walbury, Northcourt-avenue Reading.
He attended service at the King’s-road Baptist Church on Sunday morning, as was his custom and shortly after arriving was seized with illness. He was removed to the vestry, where he passed away from heart failure.
Reared in the bosom of agriculture, Richard Osmond rose to be one of the best farmers and most respected men in these parts. He was a good employer of labour, and, though a man of studious and quiet disposition was always willing to shoulder his share of public work for the good of his neighbours and the country in which he lived.
He was the son of the late Richard Osmond, who, with his brother Michael, rented the whole of the parish of Linkenholt, which is at the back of beyond somewhere on the hills between Hungerford and Hurstbourne Tarrant, and here they were most successful in sheep rearing. The son learnt the lesson of his youth well for later on, when at Weston, his flock of Hampshire Down sheep was quite noted.
When his father retired and went to live at Bath about 50 years ago, Mr. Osmond started farming on his own account at East Ilsley. He quickly gained the trust of his neighbours, as was shown by his appointment as treasurer of the Royal Ilsley Society, which in those days, was the leading agricultural organisation of the district, and of which, we believe, he was almost the sole surviving member.
He was also chosen as a member of the Wantage Board of Guardians. In the early eighties, he removed to Weston, where he remained until the end of his farming career. He farmed well and prospered, was well liked by his neighbours and held in high regard by his men.
He made a speciality of sheep, and his horses were also a strong point, and gained for him many prizes at local shows. He had many sides, little known to those who only knew him casually.
His knowledge of nature’s phenomena was very wide. Indeed he was a great student of natural history, botany and meteorology. We believe he was a member of the Selbourne Society, and we know that he kept records of the rainfall for some forty years, and those he regularly sent month in and month out to the “Newbury Weekly News.” Another of his hobbies was chess, and to this, like everything he took up, he devoted a large amount of deep thinking.
His principal public work was on the Newbury Board of Guardians and Rural District Council, and he was appointed chairman of the latter body in 1906.
He was also a Justice of the Peace for the County. He married Miss A. M. Humphries, of Wootton Bassett, who with three daughters, mourn his loss. The funeral takes place this Thursday afternoon at Newbury Old Cemetery at three o’clock. |
