Eric Ahmed Osman

This story and photos are shared by the Trust with kind permission from Ali Chaudhry, Second World War Historian based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

I visit Normandy almost every year, this past winter I had the pleasure to visit the British Normandy Memorial for the first time. I looked through the names of those which are commemorated to see if there were any Muslim soldiers that were involved in the Battle of Normandy as not much has been written about them. I noticed a familiar sounding name, that of Eric Osman, so I took a photo of the name thinking to do some more research.

As it turned, out Sergeant Eric Ahmed Osman was a Wireless Operator and Air Gunner in 51 Squadron, RAFVR, serving in Halifax bombers. He is pictured below with some of his crew members.

L-R Top row: Flt Sgt Hugh Jones, Fl Sgt Cllifford Hunt, FlSgt Ernest Royal Bottom row: Sgt Eric Osman, WO Robert Garrett, Sgt Albert Learne © Aircrew Remembered

His last mission, in Halifax MkIII LW588 taking off from RAF Snaith, Yorkshire on the 11th August 1944, was to strike the rail facilities at Somain in France. The aircraft was reported missing by the Squadron, and whilst the cause of the crash is not clear, the assumption is that it was struck by a bomb load released by an aircraft above them. The Operations Record Book reports for 51 Squadron for that day suggests that there was only slight opposition encountered by some of the aircraft, however almost all of the 25 aircraft that took part in the raid report heavy fires and smoke around the area as well as smoke that was rising at altitude that caused the target area to be obscured, especially for the aircraft that arrived late.

The aircraft crashed and the casualties were buried nearby in Douai and it wasn’t until 1957 that they were reinterred in the Valenciennes (St Roch) Communal cemetery. A detailed article on the crash was written about by Peter Lord and can be found on the aircrew remembered website here: https://aircrewremembered.com/robert-garrett.html

Eric Ahmed Osman's CWGC certificate reads condolences from his family as “Son of Ahmed and Dorothy Evelyn Osman. TO OUR DEAR BROTHER, BELOVED BY ALL. MAY HE REST IN PEACE. HIS SISTERS & BROTHER”.

Eric was the son of Ahmed and Dorothy Osman. Ahmed was born in Bombay, India in 1893 and Dorothy was born in Ashford, Kent in 1896. Ahmed immigrated to the UK and Dorothy met Ahmed at some point and they moved to London where they got married in 1919 in St Oswald's Church, Fulham. They had five children, the first of whom, Dorothy, was born six months after they got married.

They lived at 11 Richmond Place at the time of their marriage but then moved to 78 Lillie Road, Fulham. Ahmed worked as a music hall artist according to the entry in Dorothy's baptism record. Eric was born in December 1921 but after the birth of Leslie, the youngest child, in 1926 their mother Dorothy either died or left her family behind. This photo was taken c.1927 showing Ahmed with his children.

Left to Right, top row: Ahmed, Dorothy, Peggy. Bottom row: Leslie, Sybil, Eric

Because of this, Ahmed remarried to Dorothy Bundy, and they had one child, Michael Osman, born on the 4th of November 1936 in Croydon, London. It is claimed that Ahmed’s second wife did not want Ahmed’s other children, so the five children were placed into foster care.

Rarely do we see any mention of soldiers or airmen that were involved in the Battle of Normandy who have heritage from the subcontinent. To date I have not come across any in my research, although there are several Muslim soldiers from the then French colonies in North Africa and those that hailed from pre partition India which have gravestones marked throughout France and Belgium. There is no way of confirming whether Eric was a Muslim however what we can say for sure is that he had heritage from Pakistan/India and that is certainly a rarity for someone in the Battle of Normandy and a poignant reminder of the multi-national diversity of the sacrifice all those commemorated have made.

British Normandy Memorial - Additional Information

Not much is known about Eric's childhood but the 1939 Register records him as living at the National Children's Home, Highbury Park and that he was doing commercial training. Certainly, more research can be done into this and we'd love to hear from any relatives who can perhaps shed more light on the topic.

We know of one other person, Sayana Puram Duraiswamy Thyagarajan, who came from Pondicherry, India. There may be others but family information is not known for a number of those commemorated on the memorial. We would welcome information about those we have not yet identified.