Thomas Ashford

He helped carry a wounded soldier through fierce enemy fire.

Thomas Elsdon Ashford was born near Newmarket in the late 1850s and worked as a baker at Whitwick before joining the Royal Fusiliers in 1877. He served in Ireland and then India before the Second Afghan War.

During the sortie from Kandahar on 16 August 1880, he helped Lieutenant William Chase rescue Private Massey from a blockhouse at Deh Khoja. Under enemy fire, they carried the wounded soldier for more than two hundred yards, repeatedly stopping to rest but continuing until he reached safety. Both received the Victoria Cross. Ashford's cross was presented at Madras in December 1881.

He returned to Britain in 1884 and completed his reserve service in 1889. He married Betsy Ann Sisson in 1891 and worked as a postman at Whitwick for about twenty years. He died there in February 1913 and was buried in the local cemetery.

Official Victoria Cross citation

For conspicuous gallantry on the occasion of the sortie from Kandahar, on the 16th August, 1880, against the village of Deh Khoja, in having rescued and carried for a distance of over 200 yards, under the fire of the enemy, a wounded soldier, Private Massey, of the Royal Fusiliers, who had taken shelter in a blockhouse. Several times they were compelled to rest, but they persevered in bringing him to a place of safety. Private Ashford rendered Lieutenant Chase every assistance, and remained with him throughout.

The London Gazette of 7 October 1881, Numb. 25023, p. 4990