While serving with the 1st Devons in Malaya in 1948 Ashworth succeeded Captain Michael Bullock (later Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Bullock OBE DL officer commanding the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment[7]) as Battalion Intelligence Officer (IO GSOIII) and was placed in charge of intelligence gathering and analysis in the Kluang area, specifically monitoring Malayan Communist Party guerrillas during the Malayan Emergency.

It was as Marketing Director of Quaker that in 1968 Ashworth conceived the idea of engaging celebrity chef Sir Clement Freud to promote the dog food Minced Morsels (later Chunky).

He appointed Collett Dickenson Pearce to produce what became a landmark television advertising campaign which saw Quaker's dog food become the market leader almost overnight and turned Freud into a household name.

Following the rescue of Crawford's, in 1970 Ashworth's turnaround capabilities were sought as Deputy Managing Director of Overmark Smith Warden, another important but financially embattled UK advertising agency.

[citation needed] Ashworth was by conviction a centrist and one-nation conservative who was motivated to become politically active in order to defend community interests, both in his native west country[17] and in London.

In 1973 he stood as an independent Centre Party candidate in the Hammersmith and Fulham Greater London Council Election in order to highlight the borough's road safety issues, having identified that too few pedestrian crossings were provided to keep pace with increasing traffic volume and speed.