William Chrimes's Story.
William was born in Birkenhead in 1887 to father Joseph, a shipping clerk, and mother Ellen. He was one of eleven children but five of his siblings had died by 1911.
The family lived in Taylors Buildings, Birkenhead in 1891 but by 1901 they had moved to 7, Bright Street, also in Birkenhead. William attended St. John’s School. The year 1901 saw tragedy for the family as William’s older brother Samuel had enlisted in the Cheshire Regiment in November 1900, but died of pneumonia and cardiac failure some three months later, in February 1901, whilst stationed in the Curragh, Ireland.
William had a career in the military. He enlisted in the Cheshire Regiment on 10 November 1902 but was discharged 5 days later, possibly because he stated his age as 17 when he was actually 15 years old. He must have been determined to join up because on the 2nd of December he joined the Royal Navy where he remained until 1904. Not content with that, following his discharge from the Navy he enlisted in the Royal Munster Fusiliers in 1905 and served with them in India.
William married on the 14th May 1911 to Elizabeth Gill at St. Nicholas Church, Liverpool. We can assume that he had left the army by then as his occupation is recorded as a labourer.
He enlisted in the Cheshire Regiment in August 1914 shortly after the outbreak of the First World War serving with the 8th Battalion. He arrived in the Balkans on the 26th June 1915, with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, taking part in the campaign at Gallipoli, being wounded in that August. He recovered and returned to the front line the following month only to be wounded again and invalided back to England. Following his recovery William was posted to the 10th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment and embarked for the Western Front in June 1916, there he joined his unit who were based on the Somme. During July he was promoted to Corporal, and in August 1916 promoted again to Sergeant.
William was awarded the Military Medal (London Gazette – 21 Dec 1916) ‘for conspicuous bravery and setting a fine example to his platoon by lying in the open under terrific shell fire and sniping at German bombers.’ It is assumed that the action in which he earned the Military Medal took place sometime in November 1916. He was also mentioned in Despatches by Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haigh, for gallant and distinguished service in the field (London Gazette – 4 Jan 1917).
By April 1917 the battalion had moved to the French/Belgian border near to Steenwerck. William was severely wounded on 15th April 1917 and died of those wounds three days later on the 18th at a nearby casualty clearing station. The battalion diaries for the 15th April describes that day – “Very little activity of any sort during the day. At 7.45 pm a heavy barrage was put on our front line, this barrage narrowed down and was concentrated on our right centre coys front (C) and CTs. A raiding party of about 50 came over almost immediately and tackled two of our posts in the salient from the flanks, getting some prisoners; the enemy only stayed in our trenches for a few minutes.”
It was during this action that William suffered his fatal wounds.
Sergeant William Chrimes Ashbrook was buried at Trois Arbres Cemetery, Steenwerck, France.
In 1921 William’s widow Elizabeth was living with her parents at 62, Bentinck Street, Birkenhead, and was employed as a ‘Dentists Assistant’. In 1922 she married William Searson.
Research and photograph of W.C. Ashbrook by Chris Booth.