Gunner William Ewart Ashmore

William was born in Cambridge in 1898. In 1901, his father Walter Ashmore and his wife Laura were living at 16 Hope Street Cambridge with their three children Gladys aged 8, Arnold 7 and William who was 2 years old at the time. Walter was employed as a Carpenter and Joiner.

By 1911 the family had moved to 12 Hillingdon Villas on Phipps Bridge Road, Merton. Father Walter was still employed as a Carpenter and Joiner, working for the London County Council. Gladys had left home, and Arnold was working as a Clerk. William was still at school, and now had a younger sister Rosa, aged 9.

During World War 1, William enlisted at Lambeth, as a Gunner with the Royal Field Artillery. He was assigned to “C” Battery, with the 186th Brigade. Artillery soldiers, known as 'gunners', fired explosive shells. The biggest guns weighed several tons and were hard to move. Artillery guns would fire thousands of shells to flatten enemy defences before the infantry ran forward. 

William’s Brigade would have been involved in several important battles, including the Battle of Passchendaele (July – October 1917). The 186th Brigade’s War Diary entry for the 1st October 1917 states that there was “Harrassing fire going on night and day, and the Brigade was heavily shelled for the greater part of the day” It also stated that two Officers and twelve other men were wounded, and that two “Other Ranks“ were killed. Sadly, William was one of the men killed in action on that day. Most War Diary entries only record Officers by name, but unusually for a War Diary, William is named as having died that day.

William is buried at La Clytte Military Cemetery, Belgium, and is commemorated locally on the Mitcham War Memorial.

His mother received his last pay of £9.10.00. William’s father Walter died in 1926, while his mother died 10 years later in 1936. His sister Gladys married Archie Phillips in 1917, and continued to live in the Mitcham area. Unfortunately, his brother Arnold died at an early age in 1931.