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“If you think, have a kindly thought, If you speak, speak generously, Of those who as heroes fought And died to keep you free”
Set up by the Black Country Society. Our aim is to highlight local men who died in the Great War and how they have been commemorated on war memorials. Its scope covers the whole of the present Dudley Municipal Borough and therefore includes the places which have come within its bounds since 1914.
There are over fifty memorials and the number of names exceeds three thousand. Research on the names has been extensive but inevitably errors and omissions occur. We would like to hear about them concentrated on life and work before 1914, involvement in military campaigns and where each man is buried or commemorated.
Henry Ashman was born in Netherton but was living in Birkenhead in 1914. He was a pre-war soldier and was serving in the 3rd Battalion of the Worcesters when war broke out. Their list of battles and actions from 1914 is long. From the retreat from Mons and the battles for the Aisne and Ypres in 1914 and Festubert and Ypres in 1915 they fought with courage and determination. They were at Messines in the early part of 1916 and were then ordered to the Somme. They were in action after four days attacking the very difficult Leipzig Salient near the village of Thiepval. On the 16th July they attacked at Ovillers in an attempt to clear the village and after two weeks out of the line they returned at the end of July. There was no quiet time in the front line and Private Henry Ashman was killed in action on the 1st August. He is buried in Knightsbridge Cemetery, Mesnil Martinsart, (E 49) and commemorated on the Dudley Memorial.
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Town Hall, Priory Street, Dudley
