Charles Osborn (1826-1904) was a hardware merchant, who was born in Birmingham. He was the son of Henry Osborn (a grocer) and his wife, Elizabeth. By 1851, he was an assistant in a hardware business at Edgbaston Street, which was operated by Harriet Newman. She was the widow of Charles Newman, a hardware dealer, who had died on 10 September 1846, aged 35. Charles Osborn and Harriet became partners, though this arrangement was dissolved in 1860. Charles was next joined as a merchant and factor by Robert Hyndman at 60 Edgbaston Street.  This partnership was dissolved in 1896.

Charles Osborn died after ‘an internal operation’ on 11 October 1902, aged 76, at his residence, Etruria House, Moseley, Worcestershire. He died a wealthy man, leaving £62,474. His spare time had been devoted to Birmingham Blue Coat School and he was a former chairman of the Birmingham Board of Guardians (Birmingham Daily Gazette, 15 October 1902).  The funeral was at Yardley Wood Church.

The business passed to the Douglas family of Stourbridge. William Henry Douglas (1839-1913) was a jeweller, whose sons – Lewis William (1874-1919), Ernest Harry (1876-1964), and Charles James (1879-1957) – became directors of Charles Osborn. The lead seems to have been taken by Ernest, who had moved to Birmingham by 1901 as a hardware factor’s clerk (probably at Osborn’s).  He was one of Charles Osborn’s executors. Ernest marked his arrival as a ‘hardware merchant’ by changing his name to Ernest Harry Douglas-Osborn. Whether this name-change (also adopted by his brothers) was due to a family connection or simply homage to the firm’s former owner is unknown.

Osborn’s subsequent history is somewhat sketchy. Its address was Moor Street, then later Highgate Square, Birmingham. In  1919, Lewis William died in a car crash at Mucklow Hill, Halesowen, (Birmingham Gazette, 7 October 1919).  Nevertheless, his brothers were still taking care of business into the 1950s. It had developed two wings: Charles Osborn (Hardware) Ltd; and Osborn Manufacturing Co Ltd (specialising in electrical fittings). In the mid-1950s, Ernest was driving daily to Highgate Square each day from his home at Barnt Green, Worcester. He had his nephew, Lewis Watkins (Peter) Douglas-Osborn (1914-1959) – the son  of Charles James – to help him as co-director (Birmingham Post, 14 September 1955). But this increasingly geriatric management eventually passed from the scene: Charles James, who had the ‘reputation of being one of the best buyers in the trade’, died in 1957, aged 78 (Birmingham Post & Gazette, 3 January 1957). Lewis (Peter) Watkins’ death was reported two years later. He was said to have been the great-great-great grandson of the founder (Birmingham Post & Gazette, 17 February 1959). Ernest Harry died on 7 July 1964, aged 88, leaving £15,187. In that year, Osborn’s was acquired by Fletcher’s Hardware.