Ashton biography ...

[eschiss1]

I'd forgotten that Algernon Ashton, mentioned a few times in this forum here and there, studied under Joachim Raff (for a half year, anyway...) (also sometimes mentioned here).  The former wrote a memorial letter, I see, about Raff to the Musical Times on his centenary (June 1 1922, p.427, written May 16). ... Neat...

[semloh]

Wow. Good sleuthing, Eric! 

[Wheesht]

Interesting! This post has inspired me to check the Kalliope database of letters and autographs held in German libraries: http://kalliope.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de
If you enter Ashton under "Sucheinstieg Personen", the system returns 31 hits, held at the Staatsbibliothek Berlin, the BSB Munich and various others. Many letters are to publishers Bote & Bock, but also to people like Rheinberger for example. In each case one would need to find out how to gain access to the letters, some may have been digitised by the rspective libraries.