Ellis Raphael Immanuel Ashton

Ellis was born the second son to Immanuel and Sarah Ashton on 21st March 1923 in Bombay, India. He had all together nine other siblings. He studied in Christ Church High School Bombay one of the leading educational institutions and did his Senior Cambridge with an excellent grade average. 

After school he attended Elphinstone College in Bombay, after which he opted to join the British India Army. Upon Completion of his Officers training course in Belgaum in Bombay Presidency he was given the Rank of 2nd Lieutenant as a King’s Commissioned Officer in the 5th Royal Battalion in the 5th Maratha Light Infantry Regiment. 

In 1942 his unit was shipped to Iraq. He became an ardent admirer of the Jewish National Movement for the establishment of a homeland for the Jews in what was then called by the British as the Mandated Territory of Palestine. He did everything in his power to aid and assist the Haggana –The military wing of the movement. It is not clear exactly what sort of aid he provided the Haggana but it is rumored that he helped the Haggana to acquire and smuggle arms and ammunition and smuggle Polish and other Jews into Palestine.

In one of the skirmishes, it is most likely, that the British Ambushed the Haggana unit and he was initially seriously wounded and later died. 

He is buried in Iraq-in Baghdad North Gate War Cemetery-in Plot No-23, Row-B, Grave No 13. 

According to Haggana records he was involved in the smuggling of Polish Refugees and desperately required arms and ammunition through Iraq to Israel.  According to Haggana records a member of that Haggana team was an American Jewish Agent of the OSS. This double agent betrayed his friends, in the Haggana and was the cause of the capture or killing of Ellis Ashton.  

Through the Haggana Records Ellis was in Eretz Israel several times, was known to the people in the Haggana and was known in the Haggana records as the “Indian”.