Secrets always safe with this old-school city barber

Source: Waikato Times print edition

01 November 2008

By ROY BURKE

Charles Patrick (Pat) Osborne, 1921-2008 - barber

Pat Osborne was a barber and a listener. Loyal customers brought their shaggy locks and their troubles to Pat and talked through the problems of the world. Pat listened. He never gossiped. Pat was trusted. Secrets were safe with him.

His Victoria St shop in the now-gone Embassy Theatre building was a retreat for the mighty and the humble. There they could pour it all out while they got any haircut they liked, mostly variations on navy-style short back and sides. Pat was "old school" - too old to learn the girlie long-haired clips brought to fashion by guitar-playing songsters. But he knew how to style a haircut to complement the shape of a client's face. He was an artist in his own right. Pat's models had been old-style, screen stars like twinkle-toed Fred Astaire (himself something of a short back and sides man). Fred's influence on Pat may have gone beyond the haircut; Pat's early talents included tap dancing. Those were pre-television times when families made their own entertainment and friends with performing talent were admired. Older brother Les and Pat had a tap duo stage act sharp enough to earn them a story in The Waikato Times when they were lads. Pat was also an exceptionally competent ballroom dancer.

Pat's tap shoes were abandoned long ago and the tales and troubles confided in his barbershop have also gone now; Pat died peacefully at Hamilton's St Joan's Hospital on Saturday, October 18. He was 87, and had been in St Joan care for 18 months with a tired heart and a body worn past its "use by" date.

Pat was the youngest of six children of farmer parents Ann and Fred Osborne. He was born in Hamilton on July 23, 1921. The Osbornes bought their Newstead farm in 1918 and their children, including Pat, were significant in the farm workforce. For a short time Pat attended Newstead School before transferring to Catholic schools in Hamilton East, making the daily trip by train from Newstead to Claudelands and return. Rugby and cricket were his sports.

The Newstead farm was bought by the Hamilton City Council in 1956 and became Hamilton Park Cemetery.

Pat learned barbering skills as an apprentice in Auckland in the late 1930s. It was a trade he took with him into the Royal New Zealand Navy when World War II broke out. Pat served on several ships, including the Achilles and the Gambia, as a steward and leading steward. He had an unofficial extra role as ship's barber till he took discharge in 1946.

Those navy years continued the shaping of Pat Osborne. As a youngster he was always disciplined, law abiding and meticulous. After the navy his personal turnout and his shop were always "ship shape and Bristol fashion" (to use a nautical term).

He returned to Hamilton, for a time worked for other Victoria St barbers, then opened his own business about 1951 in the old Embassy Theatre building. Nephew Colin Osborne, who worked a few doors away in the former Waikato Times building, recalls Pat's thriving business in the 1960s. The three-chair salon kept Pat, his apprentice Richard Smith and another barber very busy.

"One day Pat put some money from the till in a paper bag and put it under the counter," says Colin. "It came as a bit of a shock when he went to get the paper bag of bank notes and it wasn't there. After some quick inquiries Richard said he had taken it out with the rubbish to the incinerator at the back of the shop - and he'd lit the fire. They say that Pat's sprint to the incinerator was outstanding, with his shoes barely touching the ground." The paper bag was retrieved just in time. Pat, with a smile from ear to ear, was pictured in The Waikato Times with his slightly singed banknotes.

Richard Smith completed his apprenticeship, returned to England where he was born, and, with a name change to Richard O'Brien, became world famous as creator of The Rocky Horror Show. A controversial statue of Riff Raff, one of the Rocky Horror Show characters, is in Victoria St close to the old barbershop site commemorating this famous son (he may be a Brit, but Hamilton claims him anyway).

Pat closed the Victoria St shop about 1980 and traded in Collingwood St for the next eight years till a sort of retirement. Pat continued cutting hair for special clients as a travelling barber, and also operated at home in his garage.

Colin fondly remembers those haircuts in the garage, finished off with a glass of sherry with his uncle.

Colin was his last client, in 2006. Ex-seaman Dufty Wilson served in RNZN ships with Pat and scores 60-odd years that Pat cut his hair. "He was always meticulous, always well presented and his salon was always spotless." Dufty says Pat was well known to Hamilton businessmen. "He trimmed the locks of hundreds of leading Hamiltonians."

Charlie Cubit was one of those who had regular trims from about 1950 till Pat abandoned his scissors and clippers. "He was into basic styles - when the elaborate ones came in he was past learning them. Pat was a good reliable bloke and friend."

Arnel Ormsby, a Hamilton barber for 43 years from 1945, says Pat was a good hairdresser dedicated to his work.  He was a man of integrity, one to be trusted. He was always open on time and took care of his customers. He took pride in his craft.

Pat married Olga Harrington in 1961. He is survived by Olga and two daughters by earlier marriages, five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.