Reginald John Ashfield was born in East Moulsey, Surrey, on 21 Mar 1891 to John Lewington Ashfield and Eliza Jeanette Ashfield (née Lewington).

Ashfield initially became a schoolteacher at Tiffin School, Kingston upon Thames; a keen aeroplane model-maker, he built a glider with his pupils which they tried at Telegraph Hill, Thames Ditton. As a devotee of Hendon and Brooklands at week-ends, he was commissioned by C.G. Grey to write a short descriptive article on the Sopwith Hybrid, and at the Sopwith establishment was asked to hand Grey an advertisement for a draughtsman. He immediately decided to abandon teaching, applied for the job, and got it, becoming Sopwith's first draughtsman.

Ashfield eventually left Sopwith for Gosport in early 1917, then to George Pamall & Co Ltd (1919-1932), Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd (1932-1939) and finally to the Fairey Aviation Co Ltd, from where he retired in 1962. While employed by George Pamall, Ashfield designed a single seat biplane glider for the 1923 'Flight' Glider Designing Competition. Although the joint winning design, it was never built.

1. Flight 12 Apr 1923
2. Flight 19 Apr 1923
3. Flight 24 May 1923