Private Clarence Ash

Clarence Ash was born in Stoke-on-Trent and lived in Staffordshire. He enlisted in the South Staffordshire Regiment and volunteered for airborne forces.

Private Ash successfully completed his glider training, and was posted to A Company, 2nd (Airborne) Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment and took part in operation Market Garden (Arnhem).

Pte Ash’s body was washed up on the bank of the river Lek on 18 November 1944. Like so many others, he was probably killed (or drowned), aged 25, during the withdrawal of the remainder of the 1st Airborne Division from the Oosterbeek perimeter on the night of 25/26 September 1944. His body was recovered from the most westerly point of any of the men in the Division, some 65 km west of the battlefield as the crow flies, about 80 km downstream. He was buried in Schoonhoven (Willige-Langerak) Churchyard. (Roll of Honour, 5th Revised edition, 2011)

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