Born at Stavely in Ulverston the son of the Reverend Henry Ashe of that parish. Attended St. Bees School, Cumberland and won a Classical Exhibition to St. John's College, Cambridge. Subsequently switched to the sciences, and on leaving Cambridge took up teaching. Taught at schools at Stevenage, Saffron Walden and Hartlebury before retiring in 1939 to live at Colyton. Married Joanna Vawdrey, daughter of Reverend D. Vawdrey of Areley Kings, Worcestershire.
A.A.Allen in his obituary of Ashe in Ent.mon.Mag., 1962, 110, notices that it was while he was at Hartlebury that ‘we first hear of him collecting, with enthusiasm and great success, the beetles of the district ... Here in the course of years he captured many rarities and species quite new to that part of England, and it is to be regretted that (as far as we know) he published no list of his finds in the area... He quickly made friends among the many collectors of the period, and some of those who stayed with him for the purpose of sampling the local beetle fauna were Sir Thos. Hudson Beare, Prof G.W.Nicholson, and Messers Bedwell, Bowhill, Daltry, Donisthorpe, Harwood, and Stott. It was here that he made his first addition to the British list in the shape of the tiny Histerid Acritus atomarius Aube.’
‘At Colyton, where he naturally had more leisure to devote to his favourite hobby, he continued to collect with no less energy and success, and from then on contributed frequent notes and lists of his more interesting finds to the EMM. He was, we believe, engaged for some years on a comprehensive Devon list, but unhappily did not live to complete this desirable project. He became especially keen on the difficult small Staphylinids (Atheta, etc.) - so badly neglected by the ordinary run of collectors - and here his sharp eye and patient perseverance stood him in very good stead; he would, for instance, work minutely through sack after sack of flood refuse from the River Coly in search of some desired Atheta and nearly always succeed in his quest in the end. A. alpina Benick and Oxypoda planipennis Thoms. both new to Britain [the latter from Nethy Bridge, where he spent many summer holidays] are among his best finds in this group. His most spectacular discovery was no doubt the addition to our fauna of the large weevil Hylobius transversovittatus Gze.; but no less important was his separation (in 1946-7) of Cantharis cryptica Ashe ... from C. pallida Gze, ... It was he who put Moccas Park, Hereford ‘on the map’ as a haunt of rare species (though not-the first to collect there), of which he took quite a series over a number of visits; one of them Trixagus brevicollis Bonv. was new to Britain, and he afterwards found it also at Shute Park, Colyton.’
Ashe bequeathed his collection to Torquay Museum, and I have seen other beetles collected by him in the Birmingham Museum (Dyson Perrins); Doncaster Museum (ex. coll. E.M.Eustace) and Manchester Museum. Trevor James informs me that there also specimens collected by him in the D.G. Hall collection at Baldock Museum and K.C.Lewis has Ashe specimens in his collection. Duff (1993), 7, records that A.A. Allen has some of Ashe's duplicates. He gave 7 beetles from Devon and Inverness to the NHM in four gifts February and March 1947 (MD 7/01, 10/03, 12/06, 6/18, 1/22)