Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Rudolph Asher attested for the Australian Imperial Force on 15 June 1916, at Adelaide, South Australia. He joined the 14th Field Ambulance of the A.I.F. and was wounded in France on 22 October 1917. He returned to Australia on 15 February 1918.

Enlistment

Rudolph Asher was born on 24 August, 1886 at Port Augusta, South Australia. He was the son of Jacob M Asher Spiewkowski (1837-1922) and Rebecca Kate Bennett (1850-1886). He attested for the Australian Imperial Force on 15 June 1916, at Adelaide, South Australia, joining the Australian Army Medical Corps. He was a chemist by profession so it was natural that he join the Field Ambulance and become a Dispenser. His first two weeks were spent at the No.7 General Hospital in Keswick.

On 11 December, 1916 he was promoted to Staff Sergeant and sent to AMC Base Mitcham. The role of pharmacists in their medical service structures initially followed the British army model, which meant that Australian pharmacists who signed up for the Army Medical Corps (AMC) could only attain the non-commissioned rank of staff-sergeant. Army dispensers didn’t require registration, but only had to pass an Army examination in order to work in an AMC dispensary.

France

Asher’s unit embarked for France from Adelaide, South Australia, on board HMAT A28 Miltiades on 24 January 1917.

Staff Sergeant Asher was Taken on Strength with the 14th Field Ambulance on 18 October, 1917. The Unit War Diary shows that he was one of four Other Ranks (“OR”) taken on strength that day. Four days later he was wounded in action receiving a gunshot wound to his right hand. He was taken to the 3rd Canadian Casualty Clearing Station (3rd Can. C.C.S.) that day and three days later moved to the 9th General Hospital located in Nantes on the Atlantic coast, south-west of Paris. On 29 October, Asher was sent to England arriving in Oxford on 31 October. His wound at this time was described as slight yet it was of sufficient severity to have him sent to England where he would move to multiple medical facilities over the next two months including 3rd Southern General Hospital (31 October, 1917 – 18 November 1917) and No. 3 Australian Auxiliary Hospital Dartford (19 November, 1917 – 21 November 1917). Supposedly since the wound was slight Asher was granted a two week furlough from 21 November to 5 December. His service papers have him reporting from London to Sutton Veny. He was classified as B1A3, which under the Australian Medical Classifications meant he was “Fit for overseas training camp in two to three weeks.” On 13 December he was duly sent to Overseas Training Brigade at Longbridge Deverill. However rather than return to France he was assigned to Transport Duty to Australia and sent to Weymouth on 17 January, 1918, leaving for Australia on 11 February, 1918 on HT 'Llanstephan Castle' and arriving on 16 April, 1918. He did not return to France and was discharged at the conclusion of the war on 10 December, 1918.

Post war

Post-war, Asher married Ella Cohen (1887-1985) in the Adelaide Synagogue on 23 February, 1921. They had one son, John Samuel Asher, who was killed at Garden Island in Sydney Harbour on 1 June 1942 whilst serving aboard HMAS Kuttabul, one of 21 killed by a Japanese torpedo fired that night by a midget submarine in Sydney Harbour.

Rudolph Asher died on 3 March, 1977.