About Gary Ashley

My interest began with a picture of my grandad on a horse in full hussar rig and from there, the questions flowed. It was in the early 1960's and I was told if I wanted to know more about Mons, to go next door and talk to grandad ! Sunday markets in East London full of medals hooked me on collecting in the mid 1960's and what today would be seen as high end militaria was regarded as army surplus. We were part of the Airfix generation and the comics were full of wartime tales, with the part of London I lived in still being scared by the Blitz, this spurred an active interest in the human side of military history. In the 1970s I became an avid historical reenactor joining the Sealed Knot, meeting famous characters such as Brigadier Peter Young. The Napoleonic aspect was awakened by the movie Waterloo and a growing interest in model soldiers it was the hay day of the hobby in the 1970s.

The first battlefield I explored was in 1971 when on holiday staying on the site of the Boyne. From there, with the school to Ypres in 1973 and the bug to explore the battlefields had bit. In the years since, I have travelled the world visiting battlefields in South America, North America, South Africa and Russia and of course many days exploring the sites around where I live in Northern France. I still search the local markets here for militaria and the gems and bargains are still there.