Lionel Ashfield

Lieutenant Lionel Arthur Ashfield DFC (1 August 1898 – 16 July 1918) was a World War I British flying ace credited with seven aerial victories.

Background The second son of Charles Edmund Ashfield and his wife Ida Lucy Hunt, Lionel Arthur Ashfield was born on 1 August 1898 at Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, England. He was christened there on 28 August 1898. His father was the headmaster of Hazelhurst School in Frant, East Sussex. Lionel attended Marlborough College in Marlborough, Wiltshire, where he played cricket. He was admitted to the school in September 1912 and left in the spring of 1917.

Military career

Lionel Ashfield joined the Royal Naval Air Service on 29 April 1917. He was first stationed at Eastchurch, Isle of Sheppey, Kent in June 1917. He was posted to Cranwell, North Kesteven, Lincolnshire the following month.

The British flying ace is credited with shooting down seven enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The citation for the DFC in the Gazette indicated that he was a "very capable officer of exceptional judgment and courage. He has carried out sixty-two flights behind the enemy lines with invariable success. During the last few months he has engaged seventeen enemy machines, and has been instrumental in destroying five. On one occasion he attacked five enemy aeroplanes, bringing down one in flames." The aviator was reported missing that day. By 29 August, it had been announced that Lieutenant Lionel Arthur Ashfield had been killed in action. The downing of Ashfield's de Havilland was the third of seven victories for Goerth. However, there is also a memorial tablet for the British aviator on the east wall of the nave of Saint Alban Church in Frant, East Sussex.