Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Trooper W. Ascough, Household Battalion, who was severely wounded in action at Arras and was later evacuated home after the Battalion suffered 70% casualties over four days during the Battle of Passchendaele in October 1917

British War and Victory Medals (2531 Tpr. W. Ascough. Household Bn.) in flattened named card box of issue, extremely fine (2) £70-£90

Willie Ascough, a groom coachman, was born at Harbury, Warwickshire, in 1887, and originally enlisted for the Coldstream Guards on 24 June 1916. Placed in Reserve, he was called up for service on 4 January 1917 and attested at Windsor for the Royal Household Battalion on 7 January 1917. Formed as an infantry Battalion at Knightsbridge Barracks some four months earlier, the troops of the Household Battalion were largely drawn from the reserve units of the household cavalry, the men skilled in horse riding and equine management; much retraining and re-equipment was necessary to convert such cavalry troops into foot soldiers, capable of conducting the increasingly mechanised war on the Western Front.

Posted to France 6 May 1917 - likely as Battalion reinforcements - Ascough served as part of 10th Brigade, 4th Division, and witnessed heavy engagement during the final two weeks of the Battle of Arras. Initially successful, the British advance ground to a stalemate as the Germans adapted to the 'set piece' attacks and concentrated ever more artillery pieces to the east of the town. Wounded in action on 24 June 1917, Ascough's Army Service Record notes a severe gunshot wound to his left eye and admittance to the 5th General Hospital at Rouen. 

Rejoining his unit in the field 22 September 1917, Ascough was present with the Household Battalion during the Battle of Passchendaele; losses were particularly severe on 9 October 1917 when 45 men of the Battalion were hit by barrage shellfire as they attempted to advance along the Poelcapelle-Schreiboom road. The following day another 50 men were struck by shellfire at the assembly position as they prepared to go 'over the top' at 5.25am and follow the Poelcapelle-Cinq Chemins road towards Requette Farm. Relieved by the 25th Northumberland Fusiliers on the night of 12-13 October, it was later found that of the original 498 men of The Household Battalion who went into action, 348 had become casualties. 13 Officers had also been hit by shrapnel and gunfire, the enemy response so intense that few of the dead could be found and later identified.

Sent to No. 10 Field Ambulance and admitted to No. 12 General Hospital, Ascough was evacuated home to England per A.T. Panama on 22 November 1917, suffering from nephritis. Admitted to University College Hospital with headaches, he never returned to active overseas service and was transferred to the Coldstream Guards at Caterham on 4 April 1918, before discharge in February 1919. Having lost so many of its original cohort, approximately 450 men, the Household Battalion was effectively disbanded on 10 February 1918.