Lieutenant (John) Oswald Payne was the son of Mr & Mrs Frederick Payne of New Farm, Bromley. Prior to the war, he was a junior partner in the firm of Baxter, Payne, and Lepper, (Bromley and Beckenham), and a Fellow of the Surveyors’ Institution and secretary of the Kent Branch of the Land Union.
Payne joined the Artists’ Rifles immediately on the outbreak of war and was later granted a Lieutenant’s commission to the 4th Royal Warwickshires and later to the 1st Battalion.
He was killed in action in April 1915 on Hill 60 in France. The Battle of Hill 60 was fought between 17 April – 7 May 1915 south of Ypres on the Western Front. You can read further details of the battle here >>
His name appears several times in the Bromley & District Times newspaper between 1915 and 1923.
