Dorothy Jean VAUGHAN (née ASHBY) (1888-1960)

Dorothy Jean Vaughan, née Ashby (1888-1960), was the eldest sister of Juliet Sladden’s schoolfriend, Joyce Ashby.

Dorothy was born at Elmcroft, Gresham Road, Staines, on 18^th February 1888, the second of seven children and eldest daughter of Ernest Howard Ashby and his wife, Jane Mary.  Dorothy’s father was a brewery director and came from a long line of Ashbys involved with brewing in Staines.  Dorothy’s great-great-grandfather, Thomas Ashby (1762-1841), had founded a brewery on Church Street, Staines, in 1796, and the company (from 1899 onwards known as Ashby's Staines Brewery Limited) lasted until 1936 when it went into voluntary liquidation. 

On 14^th August 1913, Dorothy married Charles Davies Vaughan at Maymyo, Mandalay, Burma (Myanmar).  Her husband was a Major in the regular Army, serving with the 1^st Battalion Border Regiment.  The 1^st Battalion Border Regiment was still in Burma on the outbreak of the First World War.  The Battalion returned to England and one assumes that Dorothy also returned once war was declared.

Dorothy’s husband sailed with his battalion to the Dardanelles in March 1915.  Just over a month later he was dead, having been killed in action at the Gallipoli landings.  Dorothy was living at Crabtree Cottage, Wanborough, Guildford, Surrey, at the time of Charles’ death.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Dorothy was living at Christmas Pie House, Westwood Lane, Wanborough, with her younger sister, Joyce, and her sister-in-law, Mary Ashby (wife of Dorothy’s brother, Michael), and her baby.

Dorothy never remarried and died at Christmas Pie House, Wanborough, on 15^th March 1960, aged 72.