Stalbridge Remembers
ERNEST ASHFORD
Petty Officer Stoker 299646
Died in HMS Bulwark on Thursday 26th November 1914
Aged 33
His memorial is on Panel 3
THE PORTSMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL, HAMPSHIRE.
Son of the late Charles and Mrs Mary Ashford of Church Hill, Stalbridge
and husband of Lucy E. Ashford, School Hill, Henstridge.
Personal details:
Baptised Ernest John in St Mary's Church on 7th August 1881. His father Charles, an agricultural labourer, died in 1911. He had an older brother George an older sister Florence and a twin sister Jessie. In 1918 his mother lived in one of three cottages in the grounds of what is now the Rectory. They were demolished in the 1960s. Ernest joined the Navy in late 1901. His younger brother Harry joined the 1st Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment and was killed on 14th April 1917. Ernest married Lucy Ellen Bliss at Henstridge in 1908. Lucy Ashford is listed there in the 1911 Census, living at Ash End, aged 26, and shown as Head of Household, married for 2 years, with no children.
Baptised Ernest John in St Mary's Church on 7th August 1881. His father Charles, an agricultural labourer, died in 1911. He had an older brother George an older sister Florence and a twin sister Jessie. In 1918 his mother lived in one of three cottages in the grounds of what is now the Rectory. They were demolished in the 1960s. Ernest joined the Navy in late 1901. His younger brother Harry joined the 1st Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment and was killed on 14th April 1917. Ernest married Lucy Ellen Bliss at Henstridge in 1908. Lucy Ashford is listed there in the 1911 Census, living at Ash End, aged 26, and shown as Head of Household, married for 2 years, with no children.
Military details:
Ernest joined the Navy at the same time as his friend Tom Brown (their service numbers are consecutive). They were assigned to HMS Duke of Wellington in January 1902 and thereafter their careers took separate paths until he joined HMS Bulwark in November 1912. He was promoted to Petty Officer on 3rd June 1913. He died with 737 others on 26th November 1914 when the ship, a pre-Dreadnought battleship of 15,000 tons built in 1899, blew up in the River Medway opposite Sheerness at 7.35am. According to a statement by Winston Churchill in the House of Commons that afternoon, an internal magazine explosion rent the ship asunder, and the ship had entirely disappeared when the smoke had cleared away. Nearby Sheerness and Rainham took the brunt of the blast and rumours began to run wild among the residents of a possible Zeppelin raid or that the ship had been sunk by a German submarine. An inquest discounted all these rumours and confirmed the cause as an explosion in a magazine. There were only 12 survivors.
Ernest joined the Navy at the same time as his friend Tom Brown (their service numbers are consecutive). They were assigned to HMS Duke of Wellington in January 1902 and thereafter their careers took separate paths until he joined HMS Bulwark in November 1912. He was promoted to Petty Officer on 3rd June 1913. He died with 737 others on 26th November 1914 when the ship, a pre-Dreadnought battleship of 15,000 tons built in 1899, blew up in the River Medway opposite Sheerness at 7.35am. According to a statement by Winston Churchill in the House of Commons that afternoon, an internal magazine explosion rent the ship asunder, and the ship had entirely disappeared when the smoke had cleared away. Nearby Sheerness and Rainham took the brunt of the blast and rumours began to run wild among the residents of a possible Zeppelin raid or that the ship had been sunk by a German submarine. An inquest discounted all these rumours and confirmed the cause as an explosion in a magazine. There were only 12 survivors.
HMS BULWARK
The ship in which he died with 737 others including Tom Brown, also from
Stalbridge
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PORTSMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL
His name is on Panel 3
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