Captain Reginald Charles ASHFIELD
8th (Service) Battalion Black Watch and Royal Flying Corps,

Date of birth: 19th February 1897
Date of death: 29th November 1956

Died aged 59
Unknown
Reginald Charles Ashfield was born at Wooton Bassett in Wiltshire on the 19th of February 1897 the eldest son of Charles Edmund Ashfield, a school master, and Ida Lucy (nee Hunt) Ashfield later of "Hazelhurst", Frant in Sussex. He was christened at Wooton Bassett on the 30th of March 1897.

He was educated at Hazelwood School until April 1907 where he was a member of the Football XI in 1906. The school magazine wrote the following of his football season that year: - "(Right half) - Quite understands the position and duties of a "half"; great things are expected of him in the future."

On leaving the school the magazine wrote of him: - "....goes back to his father's school. He was a promising little football player. We wish him luck!"

He went on to his father’s former prep school, Hazelhurst School before going to Marlborough College where he was in C2 House from September 1910 to August 1915. He was a member of the Football XI from 1913 to 1915, the Cricket XI from 1912 to 1915 and of the Hockey XI in 1915. He was a member of the Officer Training Corps from January 1911 where he rose to the rank of Sergeant until he left the school.

While still at school he applied for a commission on the 24th of May 1915 and was commissioned as a Temporary 2nd Lieutenant in the 10th (Reserve) Battalion Black Watch on the 30th of July 1915 and later transferred to the 8th Battalion, joining them on the Somme along with eleven other officers on the 25th of August 1916 while the battalion was in a rest area at La Comte.

On the 17th of October 1916 the 8th Battalion Black Watch moved from support lines at Flers to support an attack by the 5th Battalion Cameron Highlanders on enemy held positions at Snag Trench. The attack began at 3.40am on the morning of the 18th of October and the Camerons were successful in their assault. At 8.30pm the Black Watch moved up to relieve them in the front line. During the relief Reginald Ashfield was severely wounded in the left leg.

He was evacuated to the rear where his leg was amputated. He was embarked at Rouen on board the Hospital Ship "St George" on the 14th of November 1916, arriving at Southampton on the 17th of November. He was taken to the Queen Alexandra Hospital at Millbank in London.

On the 7th of December 1916 a Medical Board was convened to consider his case and reported:-

"He is recovering from amputation 1/3 of left thigh after gunshot wound of leg."

On the 7th of April 1917 a Medical Board sat at Millbank to report on his progress: -

"He has had his left thigh amputated as result of gunshot wound and subsequent op has been performed for relief of painful sciatic nerve. Operation wounds now healed. He requires anaesthesia."

On the 3rd of June 1917 a further Medical Board was convened in Sussex:-

"The scar is not quite healed. Artificial limb is in course of preparation. "

On the 20th of June 1917 his mother wrote the following in a letter to the War Office:-

"His new American leg was to have arrived last week and he now hears that it has been lost on the way over from America, probably torpedoed, also the stump which had healed, has broken out again. The doctor is trying to help him to get home, perhaps you can too, as it will be another 2 months now before he can get another leg."

An artificial limb was eventually fitted at Roehampton. On the 25th of October 1917 a Medical Board sat in Sussex:-

"(wounded 18/10/16 Somme) The board find that at the time and place above he sustained gunshot wound of left thigh. The thigh was amputated 5 days later. Has been privately fitted with artificial limb. The wounds are healed, but there is still a little tenderness of stump."

He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 1st of July 1917 and was appointed as Adjutant of 51 Training Squadron, Royal Flying Corps on the 31st of October 1917. He was promoted to Temporary Captain on the 24th of December 1917. He was declared as permanently unfit for service on the 18th of March 1918 and was transferred to the Unemployed List on the 11th of April 1919.

Later that year he went up to Clare College Cambridge where he achieved a BA. Despite his disability he played a high standard of cricket after the war, scoring 243 for Bluemantles CC versus Eastbourne at Tunbridge Wells in 1920. In June 1921 he passed the exam for entry into the Indian Civil Service. He arrived in India on the 31st of October 1922 where he served as an Assistant Commissioner in the Central Province from until 1927. He later moved to South Africa where he farmed oranges, living at Muden in Natal, and where he was married to Kathleen (nee Young) on the 28th of April 1934.

His brother, Lionel Arthur Ashfield 202 Squadron, Royal Air Force, was killed in action on the 16th of July 1918.

He died at Greytown, Natal, South Africa.

Went on to Marlborough College

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