Lot Essay
Commissioned Boatman William Ash was born in Portsea, Hampshire in August 1847 and entered the Royal Navy as a Stoker in August 1865. Advanced to Leading Stoker aboard H.M.S. Bellerophon in January 1873, he saw regular seagoing service until joining the Coast Guard as a Boatman in March 1880. Advanced to Commissioned Boatman at the end of 1882, he was finally pensioned from Porthleven Coast Guard Station with 'Heart disease and Dropsy' in October 1894.