Source: Michael Doyle Their Name Liveth For Evermore: The Great War Roll of Honour for Leicestershire and Rutland.
He was the son of William Ashby a Farmer, born 1830 in Southam, Warwickshire and his wife Ellen Zilpah, born 1848 in Old Brentford, Middlesex. George William was born in 1888 in Ratby, Leicestershire, his siblings were Oliff Margery, born 1885 and John T., born 1886, both siblings were born in Ratby, Leicestershire. In April 1891 the family home was at Old Hays Lodge, Main Street, Ratby, Leicestershire. In April 1911 George was employed as a Civil Servant and was residing in the family home with his widowed mother and sister Oliff at 21, King Charles Road, Surbiton, Surrey. He was the younger son of the late William Ashby, and his wife Ellen Zilpah, who was the daughter of John Sanders of Old Brentford, West London, and the nephew of the Reverend Francis Sanders M.A. (Oxon), F.S.A. George was educated at Calday Grange Grammar School, Cheshire and Liverpool College (Upper School), Lodge Lane, Liverpool, Lancashire, upon leaving there he entered the Civil Service and was employed under the War Office. He obtained a commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the 6th (City of London) Battalion of the London Regiment (Territorial Force) in August 1910, and was promoted to Lieutenant on the 1st February 1913, and Captain on the 17th May 1915. On the outbreak of war he volunteered for foreign service and embarked for France in March 1915. He served therough the Battle of Festubert, and other engagements, and was killed in action during the attack on Loos on the 25th September 1915. He was leading his Company down a lane, cut by our artillery in the German wire, and had almost reached the enemy fire trench when they encountered some uncut wire, and he fell riddled with machine gun fire in the act of cutting this. His Battalion took, and held the trench, but suffered heavy casualties. At Calday Grange School he was head boy, and obtained a nomination to Liverpool College when only 16. Here he represented the school at football and cricket, and passed the Oxford and Cambridge Higher Board Examinations with distinction. George was unmarried.