Henry Sherard Osborn Ashington (25 September 1891 – 31 January 1917) was an English track and field athlete from Ormskirk who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics. In 1912 he finished tenth in the long jump competition and 14th in the standing long jump event. Harrow Memorials the Great War CAPTAIN H. S. O. ASHINGTON East Yorkshire Regiment Aged 26 January 31st 1917 Only son of Sherard A. Ashington, of West Hill House, Harrow-on-the-Hill, and of Mrs. Sherard Ashington. Monitor Head of his House. Won the Cross Country Race, the Quarter-mile, Half-mile and Mile in the Sports of 1910. King's College, Cambridge, 1910, B.A. 1 914. In the University Sports of 1912, he won the Hurdles and the Long Jump for Cambridge in 1913, the Hurdles, the Half-mile and the Long Jump, beating C. B. Fry's record by clearing 23 ft. 5f ins., and making a further record by winning three events in the same year. In 1914 he won the High Jump and the Long Jump, beating his own record with a jump of 23 ft. d\ ins. Thus in the Oxford and Cambridge Sports he had won seven events in three years, another record. He represented Great Britain at the Olympic Games at Stockholm. Shortly after the War broke out Captain Ashington was given a Commission in the 7th East Yorkshire Regiment and went to the Belgian Front early in 1915. He was wounded in the advance of July 1916, and was sent to the London Hospital. After some months of light duty he returned to the Front in November 1916, and was promoted Captain. He was mentioned for a gallant action in the General's Divisional Orders on December 27th, 1916. On January 28th he wrote the following letter about a suggestion that he should join the Intelligence Corps - " I don't mind this life. I rather like it, and I like my present position very much indeed. Also I hate that spirit which is so prevalent of always hunting for cushy jobs - trying to get out of it at any price - it makes me want to stay here and see the thing through where I am." Three days later on January 31st 1917 - he was hit by a sniper as he was going round his posts and died the same night without recovering consciousness. His Colonel wrote ..... " It has been a nasty knock to every one of us, and personally I know that I have lost one of my best and bravest Officers. . . . The men in his Company just worshipped him and would have followed him anywhere, and a sadder lot of men I never saw, when they knew he had been mortally hit." http://www.archive.org/stream/harrowmemorialso04warn/harrowmemorialso04warn_djvu.txt http://www.ukniwm.org.uk/server/show/conMemorial.11163/fromUkniwmSearch/1 In Memory of Captain HENRY SHERARD OSBORN ASHINGTON 7th Bn., East Yorkshire Regiment who died age 25 on 31 January 1917 Son of Sherard and Lydia G. Ashington, of 55, Holbein House, London, S.W.I. Remembered with honour COMBLES COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION
