Name
Thomas Ashby
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
24/09/1914
32
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
5636
King's Royal Rifle Corps
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CITY OF PARIS CEMETERY, BAGNEUX
19. I. B. 1.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Watford Borough Roll of Honour, St Michael and All Angels Church Memorial, Watford, Abbots Langley Village Memorial, St. Lawrence Church Memorial, Abbots Langley, Not on the Bedmond memorials
Biography
Walter Henry and his wife, Sarah Ann (nee VINE) had eight children, one whom was Thomas.
His parents married 10 August 1872 at St Lawrence’s, Abbot’s Langley. Sarah died 1920 in the Watford district aged 70; Walter died 1923 in the Winchester, Hants, district aged 73.
Thomas Ashby was born in Abbots Langley or Bedmond, Herts., and baptised 5 March 1882 at St Lawrence’s, Abbot’s Langley in 1882 and in 1891 was living in Troley Bottom, the area of the village near the Compasses Public House with his parents and six siblings. His father, Walter Henry Ashby was a General Labourer who had lived at Leavesden.
On the 1901 Census, he was serving with the Army, having first enlisted in March 1900 as a 5’4” tall eighteen year old, and joined the Royal Fusiliers at Hounslow on 28th March. He served in Gibraltar, Egypt, Malta and Cyprus before being discharged to the Army Reserve on 31 January 1908.
He married 25 April 1910 at St Lawrence’s, Abbot’s Langley. Clara (formerly SPARKS, nee WATSON) ASHBY of Southend-on-Sea, Essex. They were by Vicar Parnell in Abbots Langley. Clarae possibly remarried 1928 in the Rochford, Essex, district to Thomas H HODGSON and, if so, died 1933 in the Rochford district aged 53.
By 1911 his parents were living at 70 Adrian Road, and that census records that they had eight children. Thomas aged 29, was living at 94 Kings Avenue in Watford, with his wife and no children, and he worked as a Laundry Man.
As conflict loomed he was mobilised on 1st August 1914, and moved to Blackdown, Aldershot to join up with the 2nd Battalion Kings Royal Rifle Corps. The unit landed at Le Harve on 13th August, and fought at Mons, the battle of the Marne and the Battle of The Aisne. His Army Service Record showed that he was wounded at Bertaucourt on 27th August, and died from his wounds in hospital in Paris on 24th September 1914. He was buried at the City of Paris Cemetery at Bagneux. His wife, Clara was awarded a Widow’s Pension of 10 shillings per week from 12 April 1915, at which time she was living at 105 Chester Road, Watford.
Two of Thomas’ brothers also served in the Great War – Walter Henry joined the Royal Navy, and Lewis served with 6th Northampton’s and was killed in action in February 1917. His uncle Albert Ashby served with the Royal Army Medical Corps and survived the War, and his brother in law, Percy Cox was also killed in action during the Zeebrugge Raid in April 1918.
Additional Information
The date of Thomas' death is given as 24 September in two sources, 5 October in two other sources. Unfortunately, Thomas’ W.W.1 Service Record appears to be one that did not survive the World War Two bombing. There are articles about Thomas in the Watford Illustrated, and the West Herts and Watford Observer both dated 10 October 1914, and the St Michael’s Parish Magazine dated November 1914.
Acknowledgments
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org, Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk)
