Ashby, Edward Alexander DCM
Edward was the second son of Edward Smith Ashby and Agnes Selina (nee Woodcock) Ashby, born in Harston, Cambridgeshire on 5 September 1886. He was a pupil at the Merchant Taylors School in Ashwell.
Edward enlisted on 17 March 1913 with the Bedfordshire Yeomanry and was a Private with the Lancers (Regimental Number 874). At the outbreak of War he was given the Regimental Number 30145 and was mobilised for France with the 1/1st Bedfordshire Yeomanry Territorial Force. On 12 June 1915 it joined the 9th Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division in France. As such it was one of only six yeomanry regiments to be posted to a regular cavalry division in the war. Edward fought in the Battle of the Somme, Battle of Cambrai and the Hundred Days Offensive. Edward survived the War.
Edward earned the Distinguished Conduct Medal for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during the last four years. ‘During recent engagements in the Battle of the Somme, three horses held by him had been wounded and on 23 March, near Potte, his horse was wounded and he himself was hit in the thigh by a splinter of a shell. Regardless of his own wound, he assisted in tending the men and horses which had become casualties, and only reported his own wound when he had brought his horse back.’
He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, the 1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.
He is commemorated on the St Mary’s Church Ashwell Roll of Honour.
Before enlisting he was a domestic coachman living in Swan Street, Ashwell
Edward married Emily Elizabeth Gautrey in the third quarter of 1908. They had one child, Jack, born in Ashwell in the third quarter of 1909.
The 1939 Census shows Edward living at Elbrook House, Ashwell, Hertfordshire and working as a domestic gardener. Their son, Jack was living with his wife and children in Swan Street at this time.
Edward died on 14 January 1970 at Terling, Chelmsford, Essex.
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