Melmeth Osborn

 was Secretary to the Mission in Pretoria in 1877.

On 11 April, Osborn read the proclamation annexing the Transvaal into the British Empire.

When the Fifth Doctor and Turlough discovered that the history of the event had been altered, they met with Osborn, trying to convince him to go ahead with the annexation. They were unsuccessful, as Osborn didn't feel it was a matter of great importance. After the Doctor, Turlough and Henry Rider Haggard altered the proclamation written by Sir Theophilus Shepstone, Osborn uncertainly read it before the crowd, before Haggard snatched it away and finished reading it. (PROSE: White Man's Burden)