War Memorial
Lieutenant Geoffrey William Paley Ashmore was born in London on 7 August 1875, the son of Fitzroy Paley Ashmore, a Barrister-at-Law, and his wife Marian, whose maiden name had been Bailey. Educated at Eton College between 1889 and 1892, he went on to make his living from farming, an occupation recorded for him in the 1901 census, when he was staying at the Railway Inn at Chiddingstone Causeway. Away from work he was a noted sportsman, taking the Open Croquet Championship in 1909.
He later settled at Camp Hill in Leigh, where he lived with his wife Edith. In May 1915 he enlisted, serving with Western Signal Company of the Royal Engineers and reaching the rank of Lieutenant. He earned a single campaign medal during his service.
In 1917 he was travelling from Savona in Italy towards Salonika in northeast Greece aboard the Transylvania, a Hired Transport ferrying reinforcements to that front. The ship was torpedoed off Cape Vado, a few kilometres south of Savona in northwest Italy, and more than 400 lives were lost. Geoffrey drowned on 4 May 1917, aged 42. Victims recovered and taken to the Hospital of San Paulo were buried two days later in a special plot in the town cemetery; he was laid to rest there on 11 May 1917, in Savona Town Cemetery.
His name is recorded on the Chiddingstone Causeway War Memorial and on the Edenbridge Hospital War Memorial, and a memorial board was commissioned in his memory at Chiddingstone Causeway Church.