South Yorkshire Times, September 25th 1943

Sailor Presumed Killed

After being in the Navy for eight years, during which he had taken part in some of the biggest sea battles, Leading Seaman Harry B. Ashley (23), eldest son of Mr. and Mrs F. B. Ashley. of 15, Ash Road, Wath, is reported missing, presumed killed.

He was in the sloop Egret, officially announced as sunk in the Atlantic by German aircraft, while U-boat hunting.

Ldg.-Seaman Ashley realised his ambition as a boy to join the Navy and in addition to having served in a number of destroyers he was for three years in the battleship Nelson. While serving in a gun-boat he was wounded in the legs by shrapnel, when the ship was sunk, and he was in hospital in Cyprus for about 16 weeks.

He was at the Narvik action, and among a number of battles he had taken part in at the beginning of the war were Matapan and the sinking of the Bismarck. Ldg. Seaman Ashley had been chiefly on convoy work, but had recently started in the U-Boat hunt.

He would shortly have sat for his examination to become a Petty Officer