Oswald Dalziel was born on 8 April 1884 in Glasgow, Scotland, the third of seven children to James Dalziel and Martha Thompson. The family moved to Western Australia in about 1889 and settled in Subiaco.
Oswald found work on board the steamship Minderoo, which traded cargo between Fremantle and Singapore and everywhere in between, rising to the position of chief officer. In February 1910 Oswald married Louise Cable and later in the year accepted a temporary posting in Bunbury, who he represented in a football friendly against the neighbouring town of Collie. After time in Albany, they relocated to Broome where Oswald had been appointed acting harbour master. In March 1912 he was involved in the fruitless search for the steamship Koombana, which vanished in a cyclone with the loss of all 150 on board.
Work then took Oswald to the Mid-West coastal city of Geraldton, where he went into partnership with Ernest Brede in the stevedoring firm Brede and Dalziel. When the Geraldton British Football Association was formed in mid-1913 Oswald put his hand up to referee their first organised game which pitted Whites against Red and Blacks.
An active member of the community, Oswald served on the Geraldton Municipal Council, was vice-president of Geraldton Yacht Club and in 1915 was voted in as president of the Geraldton Town football club. He also played for Town and at seasons’ end gained selection at full-back for the Association representative side that played their Junior team.
Oswald was 34 years of age when he enlisted with the Australian Imperial Force in June 1918. While training at Blackboy Hill camp he transferred to the Australian Flying Corps, as a 2nd Class Air Mechanic, and attended training in Laverton in Victoria. In October 1918, having not left Australia and after 175 days service, Oswald was discharged “at own request”. Oswald returned to Geraldton where, in 1920, he and Martha welcomed the arrival of the last of their eight children, Athol. In the decade that followed he worked as a steamship captain in Singapore, Hong Kong and the China Seas before settling in Rose Bay, New South Wales, in the late 1930s. His son Athol served with the Australian Infantry in Tobruk between 1940 to 1943.
Oswald Dalziel passed away on 28 August, 1945, in Bondi Beach, Sydney.