On this day in 1916, Albert Ashmore (1895-1916) died of wounds sustained in action in the Great War.
Albert, a private in the 6th Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry, was 21 when he lost his life in France on July 20, 1916.
The Western Times reported his death on August 4, 1916.
The newspaper described him as a ‘nice quiet lad’ who had many friends in his home parish of Cheriton Fitzpaine.
Albert was buried at the Morlancourt British Cemetery (No 1), near Albert in France.
His headstone includes the inscription: ‘O death where is thy sting, o grave where is thy victory’.
He is remembered on Cheriton Fitzpaine War Memorial.
A tribute was paid to him by his family in The Western Times three years after his death.
‘We think of him in silence, no eyes may see us weep. But treasured in our inmost heart his loving memory keep,’ they wrote.
Paul Roberts
NOTES
Albert’s brother George Henry Ashmore (1890-1940) survived horrific injuries while fighting with the Devonshire Regiment at Vermelles in northern France in 1915. A bursting shell blew off one of George’s arms and the other was so badly injured it had to be amputated. He also suffered serious leg injuries in the blast on May 9, 1915. George – initially reported as ‘missing in action’ – spent many months in hospital.
Born in 1895 in Sandford, Albert was the son of William Ashmore (1857-1939) and Eliza Spear (1864-1945), of Perry Green, Cheriton Fitzpaine. In 1911, aged, 15, he worked as a cow boy for farmer John Rooke at East Coombe, Stockleigh Pomeroy.
His brother George married Bessie Robjohns (1888-1975) in June 1916 at St Matthew’s Church, Cheriton Fitzpaine. Bessie’s brother Harry Robjohns (1887-1969) married Annie Elizabeth Kingdom (1885-1955) in 1917 in Exmouth. Annie was the daughter of Henry Kingdom (1854-1910) and Elizabeth Roberts (1851-). Elizabeth was the daughter of William Roberts (1828-1903), the eldest brother of John Roberts (1829-1919), my great-great grandfather who had 30 grandsons serving in the Great War.
Picture below
Albert’s grave at Morlancourt British Cemetery (No 1), near Albert in France. Picture on Find a Grave by Len of Chelmsford.
