Name
Reuben Ernest Ashby
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
322627
RAF
A Flight, 24th Squadron
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Biography
Reuben Ashby was born in 1878 at Bedmond. He lived with his widowed mother, Maria Ashby (Blackwell), who was the Publican at The Bell Inn at Bedmond. At the time of the 1891 Census he was staying with his grandfather, Reuben, at Beacon Farm, Lower Beeding, West Sussex. In the 1901 Census Reuben had returned to Bedmond, and lived with his mother, who was now a Grocer Shop Keeper; his brother Walter, a Clerk; his sister Maria who helped in the Grocer’s Shop,; and a widowed aunt. Reuben worked as a Carpenter.
In 1912 he married Alice Gentle, and was first noted in the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine Roll of Honour in July 1916, when he was recorded serving with the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). He was continually listed in the Roll of Honour serving with the RFC, and then with the RAF, when it was formed in April 1918 through to the end of the War.
At the end of the War Reuben was listed in the Autumn 1918, and Spring 1919 Absent Voter Records where it was recorded that he served as 1st Airman, A Flight, 24th Squadron of the RAF. 24th Squadron had been formed in 1916 and served in France throughout the War. In both Absent Voter Lists he gave his residence as Bedmond, Abbots Langley.
He returned to Bedmond after the War, and lived at Notley Croft, on the Bedmond Road. His uncle Emmanuel lived at Notley Cottage at the time of the 1901 Census, where he worked as a Dairyman. In 1925 Reuben’s wife, Alice, died by falling down the well in the garden of the property. Reuben remarried, his cousin Martha Ashby, and died in a road accident on 17th June 1931.
Reuben Ashby survived the War.
Acknowledgments
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org
