John Ashmele and Family

Family Ashmele

Family Notes...John Ashmele and his sisters.

Ruth Yvonne, only child of Sam Ashmele's first marriage, was born December 1936 in Paddington, London. At the outbreak of WW2 she was evacuated with her mother to family in Canada and then to New York. They returned to England for three years prior to the end of the war, where Ruth attended boarding school at Hollington Park in Hastings, and remembers happy times with her Ashmele grandparents (feeding the chickens) at their home in Staines. Her parents divorced during this time, and at the end of the war, Ruth and her mother returned to the U.S.A.

John Ashmele...

John Edward, son of Simon (Sam) Ashmele and Sadie Freedman, was born October 1947 in London. He was named after his grandfather Joseph, and given the Hebrew name Yosef ben Shimon h'Levi. John lived with his parents and sister near Russell Square in London. The flat overlooked the home for the nurses of Great Ormonde Street Hospital, and John recalls the nurses walking with lanterns to the hospital and singing carols in the early hours of Christmas morning.

John was educated at St. George's infant school in Holborn, then Argyle junior school in Kings Cross, then Quintin grammar school in St. John's Wood to A/level. After his father's death in 1962, John lived with his mother and sister in Marylebone. He attended chaida, and celebrated his Barmitzvah at the West London Synagogue, Upper Berkley Street in Marble Arch. Throughout his teen years. John was also a member of the Youth Association of Synagogues in Great Britain (YASGB).

On leaving school in 1966, John entered the business world of electronic data processing (as information systems technology was called in those days). In 1977 he become a freelance information systems practitioner, specialising in business and systems analysis and design, trading first as Ash Programming Support, then as Ashmele Computing Limited. Working on contract alongside clients' own staff, he has worked for various large blue-chip companies, goverment departments and in the public sector..

John bought his first house in Kenton, Middlesex shortly before meeting Anne Pollard, a legal secretary. After an on/off courtship, they were married in December 1970 at the Register Office in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. Anne later converted to Judaism under the auspices of the Beth Din at the West London Synagogue. John and Anne had two children - Caroline (b.1973) and Simon (b.1975) - and moved to Northwood, Middlesex, in the scorching summer of 1976. A few days after their third pregnancy was confirmed in 1984, Anne died suddenly in her sleep whilst visiting her mother in Bexhill-on-Sea.

Whilst balancing a business and social life as a single parent, John met Annette Langer, a French/Russian translator. They were married in September 1992 at the Middlesex New Synagogue, Bessborough Road in Harrow with John's son, Simon, acting as his best man and Annette's niece, Dani, acting as her bridesmaid. John and Annette continue to live in Northwood.

W.Bro.John Ashmele is "on the square", passing through the chairs of Jonathan Lodge No.7088 (twice) and Silver Jubilee Chapter No.5355, and serving as Charity Steward to both; he is also a joining member of Falcon Lodge No. 8062 following its amalgamation with Jonathan Lodge. He also served three years as Warden of the Middlesex New Synagoge from 2003.

Linda Ashmele (sister)...

Linda, daughter of Sam Ashmele and Sadie Freedman, was born September 1950 in London. Her birth caused great excitement in the family as she was Morris and Yetta's first grand-daughter after six grand-sons. She lives in Hertfordshire.

Page last updated .. 20 March, 2007