Edgar Osborne

Edgar Osborne (23 March 1890 – 24 November 1978) was a distinguished librarian, an able administrator, scholar and collector, who founded one of the premier collections of children's fiction, the Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books.

Early life He was born in Christchurch near Bournemouth on the south coast of England. His father, Albert was a letter-carrier, and he had married Louise Jane Hall, originally from Kingston-on-Thames, on 7 February 1888. Edgar was the second of three children for the couple, with an older sister Lilian (1889) and a younger brother Herbert (1892). All three children are shown living at home with their parents in the 1901 census.

Edgar's maternal grandmother had been a teacher at a Dame school and had a collection of nursery books. She encouraged Edgar's love of books by sharing her collection with him. Osborne attended St. Paul's School in Bournemouth, completing his formal education at age 11. At that time Bournemouth had no secondary schools, and, "as education was difficult for poor boys", he spent six years studying at home, at the library, and in evening classes. and was especially interested in the Little Theatre movement, and in verse speaking. The couple had no children.

Edgar married again in April 1957, to Kerstin Munck af Rosenschold, a Swedish librarian, who was until her retirement the City Librarian of Lund. He told a friend that he planned to spend the summers in Sweden and the winters in England. Kerstin shared his interests and visited the collection in Canada with him in 1953 and 1965.

He served throughout in the 2/14 Battalion of the London Regiment (the London Scottish). He was promoted to lance corporal in 1918 and was a Lewis gun instructor. Osborne himself had only minor hospital visits. He was demobilised on 5 April 1919 with a "Very Good" conduct rating.

He retired in 1954, but did not stop work. He was appointed librarian to the Marquis of Salisbury to oversee the 30,000 volumes at Hatfield House. As part of his work for the Marquis, he visited the US on Hatfield House library business. While at Hatfield House he discovered a rare 1597 copy of the second edition Francis Bacon's Essays which was sold at Sotheby's for £2,600 in 1958.

Fortunately, Osborne and Mabel had visited Toronto in 1934 and met Judith St. John Osborne had been a delegate for the Library Association of Great Britain at a meeting of American Library Association and travelled on to Canada after the meeting. They were impressed by what they say there, and by the work of Lillian H. Smith, the head of the children's library services. When no British library was interested, Osborne offered the collection to Toronto and they accepted. An honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Toronto in June 1970 "to celebrate the prescience of the pioneer, the discoveries of the timeless researcher, the wisdom of a generous donor". give his address in Morley. He left an estate of £112,859.