Charles Frederick Asher

His military service record has not been found.

An anonymous soldier

Charles Frederick Asher is one of the names on the Bottesford ‘church list’ of WW1 Servicemen.

Family background

Charles Frederick Asher was born on the 8th March, 1888, in Bottesford, a son of James and Annie Asher. His elder brother, George William, was born in 1884 and, after Charles Frederick, two more boys were born, Albert in 1893 and Harold in 1896.

In 1891 Charles Frederick was living in Belvoir Road with his parents and brother George. By 1901, the family had moved to Butcher Row. James Asher was still a railway platelayer, George was now a bricklayer’s apprentice, Frederick was an agricultural dayboy, Albert and Harold were at school.

In April 1911 the family home was at 23 High Street, Bottesford. James Asher’s employer was the Great Northern Railway, Harold was working for GNR as a telegraph boy, but Albert was described as a scholar. However, by this time Charles Frederick, now a single 23 years old engine cleaner, had left home and was living in a boarding house run by widow Sarah Jane Nelson at 127 Victoria Road, Netherfield, Nottingham.

A man named Charles Frederick Asher got married at Sheffield in 1904. However, the Bottesford man was recorded as single in the 1911 census, so he cannot have been the man who wed in 1904. This marriage record demonstrates that there was more than one Charles Frederick Asher.

Service records

No service records for men named Charles Asher have been found. Five medal index cards have been located, three of which could belong to the man:

133073 Pioneer, Corporal, Royal Engineers
16407 Private, Lincolnshire Regiment
49575 Private, Leicestershire Regiment

Two other MICs relate to men who served in the Royal Fusiliers and Cameron Highlanders, respectively, are less likely to be relevant here.

After the war

In the 1939 register, a man named Charles F Asher, a railway locomotive driver born 8th March 1888, lived at 7 Barton Square, Ely, Cambridgeshire, with Mildred M. Asher, born 23rd August, 1888. They had two sons, James W. Asher, a railway porter ,born on the 4th August 1917, and Albert C. Asher, a railway gate crossing keeper born on the 26th May, 1921. This may well be the Charles Asher from Bottesford.

A man named Charles Frederick Asher, born in 1888, died in June 1980 in Norwich. However, there is no certainty that this was the man from Bottesford.

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