Searching for Navy Beanie

 Hullo... Sandy and Cocoa Beanie here... we are searching for Navy Beanie. Cocoa thought maybe Navy Beanie might be hanging around the Cenotaph (it was Remembrance Day after all) but... no sign of him.

Although someone left three poppies on the memorial for the Canadian Merchant Navy... maybe Navy was Here?

We didn't really have a Remembrance Day this year... well, we did... but people weren't encouraged to attend...

We saw this one name down below all the others... Osbourne J. Orr RFC/RAF. We decided to look him up...

Osbourne John Orr was born in Nanaimo on 15 July 1895 William John Orr and his wife Caroline Stewart The family moved to Vancouver, BC in about 1901 and Osbourne's father opened a shoe store. 

In June 1914, after finishing high school, Osbourne traveled to Minnesota to visit an uncle and ended up becoming a shoe salesman. It was there that he met his future wife, Virginia Thelma Kennedy (19), and became engaged. The young couple were married in Vancouver, BC on 14 September 1917. Virginia had been born in Akron, Ohio to Samuel A/H Kennedy and Henrietta Proctor.

There has, apparently, been some confusion over Osbourne's nationality. Some American sites have him listed as being born in Ohio but it's his wife that was born there. Osbourne was definitely born in Nanaimo and married in Vancouver (see Wikipedia for links to his birth and marriage certificates).

Two weeks after his wedding, Osbourne traveled to Toronto Ontario to join the Royal Flying Corps in October 1917.  

He was promoted to temporary 2nd Lieutenant (on probation) on 10 March 1918. By June 2018, he was in England and, on 20 July sent off to France. On 1 August 1918, he was posted to the 204th Squadron of the Royal Air Force (which, before April 1918, had been the 4th Squadron of the Royal Naval Air Service). 

Osbourne was apparently a good pilot and a good shot and had five victories under his belt by the morning of 23 October. This means that he was a legitimate flying ace (five or more victories)! Unfortunately, on the morning of 23 October 1918, after his flight was returning from a bombing mission, they were engaged by a dozen enemy fighters near Termonde, Belgium. In the battle that followed, Osbourne and four other Sopwith Camel pilots were killed in action. This was just a few weeks before the end of the war. Osbourne's body was never found and he's commemorated at the Arras Flying Services Memorial in Pas de Calais. Osbourne was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1919.

Apparently, Osbourne's story has only recently been uncovered, hence the new addition of his name to the Cenotaph. Cool!

But none of that explains where Navy Beanie got to. We checked the local anchor memorial... no Navy Beanie around...

And no sign of him down by the harbour either... sigh...

Ah well, if Navy Beanie ever shows up... we'll be ready and waiting. As we were leaving he harbour we saw some weird sculptures... (this is another typical treat of beanie mice... being interested in art!)...

This one looks seriously weird...

It's called "The Laughing Fossil"... huh...

It does kinda look like some bones...

But... when we look at it from the other side... it looks beary different...

Ah-hah!!! You just have to look at it from the right angle!

Oh... and a doggie statue too... hello doggie!

And we found some purple berries on this bush... they are really, really... purple...

We think it's a Callicarpa bush... also know as Beautyberry... nice.

Right then... now if only we could find some clothing for a poor naked mouse....