Author: Osler, Edward
Biography:
OSLER, Edward (1798-1863: ODNB)
He was born on 30 Jan. 1798 and baptised on 26 Feb. at Falmouth, Cornwall, the eldest son and second of twelve children of Edward Osler, master of a packet, and his wife Mary Paddy, who had married in 1796. He trained at Guy’s Hospital, qualified in 1818, and then took up the post of resident house surgeon at Swansea Infirmary (1819-1825) and at the House of Industry (Workhouse). He married Jennette Powell on 8 Feb. 1821 at St. James’s, Swansea. She died in 1828, leaving a daughter and a son. After her death he became a surgeon in the navy, serving in the West Indies, an experience recorded in his poem The Voyage (1830). On his return to England he was employed by the SPCK and became increasingly evangelical and conservative. He assisted William John Hall, editor of the Christian Remembrancer, in the production of his Psalms and Hymns (1836), more commonly known later as the Mitre Hymn-Book, to which he contributed fifteen versions of the psalms and fifty hymns. His Church and King (1837), originally a periodical, outlined his conservative position on dissent, the Bible, and catechism. Its final fourth section contained his psalms and hymns.He submitted A Practical Essay on the Administration and Improvement of the Poor Laws (1832) to the Poor Law Commissioners which was published in their Report (1834). His biography of Admiral Viscount Exmouth appeared in 1835. He married Sarah Atkinson on 16 Jan. 1838 at St. Gluvias, Cornwall. They had four children. She died at Truro on 31 Jan. 1842. From 1841 until his death he edited the conservative newspaper, the Royal Cornish Gazette. He married his third wife, Charlotte Susannah Free, on 2 Apr. 1850 at Clifton St. Andrew. He died at Truro on 7 Mar. 1863 and was buried at St. Keyne, Kenwyn. His wife survived him and died in 1868. (ODNB 31 Jul. 2021; ancestry.co.uk 31 Jul. 2021; Bibliotheca Cornubiensis [1874] 1: 416-17; Royal Cornish Gazette 5 Apr. 1850, 13 Mar. 1863; Western Times 12 Feb. 1842) AA