Unsolved Rubaiyat - Suspicious deaths, codes & spies

[Gordon1552]

Great find Pete, Good if you could get a pic, searched NZ archives with no result, not that familiar with the way that site works though.
Walter Ashton

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[Redacted]

FamilySearch.Com has a Walter Ashton timeline ending in 1948.
Geni.com has a Albert Walter Ashton being issued a burial notice in NZ 1968.
However the Geni.com family tree swaps his forenames around. It maybe that they've conflated two different people by choosing the same birth year on both records and hence put him in the wrong family group, or as sometimes happens a person is declared legally dead after being missing for twenty years.
Only way to know is to get the 1968 burial notice from NZ for Albert Walter Ashton and see if it's the same man or see in what circumstances it was issued.
Couldn't find a death certificate in NZ so far, so I'm wondering if whoever's body it was shipped from overseas.
But so far, nothing to confirm it was him.

The FamilySearch.Com entry lists his wife and kids. The Geni.com entry does not, but lists the same siblings.

Presumably the FamilySearch.Com family tree was created by his immediate descendants and the Geni.com family tree by one of his siblings descendants. The FamilySearch.Com tree appears to be more reliable. There s no sources listed except what I added yesterday, which was to link both together

FamilySearch.org

Discover your family history. Explore the world’s largest collection of free family trees, genealogy records and resources.

ancestors.familysearch.org

Walter Ashton

Genealogy profile for Walter Ashton

www.geni.com

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[Redacted]

FamilySearch.Com has a Walter Ashton timeline ending in 1948.
Geni.com has a Albert Walter Ashton being issued a burial notice in NZ 1968.
However the Geni.com family tree swaps his forenames around. It maybe that they've conflated two different people by choosing the same birth year on both records and hence put him in the wrong family group, or as sometimes happens a person is declared legally dead after being missing for twenty years.
Only way to know is to get the 1968 burial notice from NZ for Albert Walter Ashton and see if it's the same man or see in what circumstances it was issued.
Couldn't find a death certificate in NZ so far, so I'm wondering if whoever's body it was shipped from overseas.
But so far, nothing to confirm it was him.

The FamilySearch.Com entry lists his wife and kids. The Geni.com entry does not, but lists the same siblings.

Presumably the FamilySearch.Com family tree was created by his immediate descendants and the Geni.com family tree by one of his siblings descendants. The FamilySearch.Com tree appears to be more reliable. There s no sources listed except what I added yesterday, which was to link both together

FamilySearch.org

Discover your family history. Explore the world’s largest collection of free family trees, genealogy records and resources.

ancestors.familysearch.org

Walter Ashton

Genealogy profile for Walter Ashton

www.geni.com

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Apparently the below is quoted upon a NZ blogger site....
1941-48 – Wally Ashton was a Communist candidate for the Auckland hospital board in 1941. A candidate for parliament, Auckland central in 1943. Sec of the Auckland trades council in 1943. 1943 sheepskins for Russia. April 1948 Ashton's body was never found. His abandoned car was found at Piha beach Auckland. He disappeared and went missing. (Spies and revolutionaries. Graeme John Hunt (c)2007 NZ).

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[Redacted]

Apparently the below is quoted upon a NZ blogger site....
1941-48 – Wally Ashton was a Communist candidate for the Auckland hospital board in 1941. A candidate for parliament, Auckland central in 1943. Sec of the Auckland trades council in 1943. 1943 sheepskins for Russia. April 1948 Ashton's body was never found. His abandoned car was found at Piha beach Auckland. He disappeared and went missing. (Spies and revolutionaries. Graeme John Hunt (c)2007 NZ).

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Only record in New Zealand archives is his divorce from Phyllis Irene Caroline Tisch

Archway :: Item Full Description

Online index to New Zealand Government archives. Contains descriptions of millions of records.

www.archway.archives.govt.nz

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[Redacted]

FamilySearch.Com has a Walter Ashton timeline ending in 1948.
Geni.com has a Albert Walter Ashton being issued a burial notice in NZ 1968.
However the Geni.com family tree swaps his forenames around. It maybe that they've conflated two different people by choosing the same birth year on both records and hence put him in the wrong family group, or as sometimes happens a person is declared legally dead after being missing for twenty years.
Only way to know is to get the 1968 burial notice from NZ for Albert Walter Ashton and see if it's the same man or see in what circumstances it was issued.
Couldn't find a death certificate in NZ so far, so I'm wondering if whoever's body it was shipped from overseas.
But so far, nothing to confirm it was him.

The FamilySearch.Com entry lists his wife and kids. The Geni.com entry does not, but lists the same siblings.

Presumably the FamilySearch.Com family tree was created by his immediate descendants and the Geni.com family tree by one of his siblings descendants. The FamilySearch.Com tree appears to be more reliable. There s no sources listed except what I added yesterday, which was to link both together

FamilySearch.org

Discover your family history. Explore the world’s largest collection of free family trees, genealogy records and resources.

ancestors.familysearch.org

Walter Ashton

Genealogy profile for Walter Ashton

www.geni.com

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Albert Walter Ashton is a different person.
NZ BDM has him being married to a Mavis Sainsbury in 1933

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[Redacted]

In case you're wondering. The point of genealogical searching is to look for photographs of people that might be either Somerton Man or related to people who might be nominated as Somerton Man to look for the presence or absence of the peculiar physical characteristics that Somerton Man pocesses as these might be genetically passed down.

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[Redacted]

In case you're wondering. The point of genealogical searching is to look for photographs of people that might be either Somerton Man or related to people who might be nominated as Somerton Man to look for the presence or absence of the peculiar physical characteristics that Somerton Man pocesses as these might be genetically passed down.

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No pictures of Walter Ashton yet, but here's someone who might be related to him. Maybe a grandfather or a grand uncle. Not sure yet, but the photo is interesting.

Mathew Walter Ashton (1856-1922) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

Is this your ancestor? Explore genealogy for Mathew Ashton born 1856 Lyttleton, New Zealand died 1922 Wanganui, New Zealand including research + 1 photos + more in the free family tree community.

www.wikitree.com

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[Gordon1552]

Albert Walter Ashton is a different person. NZ BDM has him being married to a Mavis Sainsbury in 1933 Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

No pictures of Walter Ashton yet, but here's someone who might be related to him. Maybe a grandfather or a grand uncle. Not sure yet, but the photo is interesting.

Mathew Walter Ashton (1856-1922) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

Is this your ancestor? Explore genealogy for Mathew Ashton born 1856 Lyttleton, New Zealand died 1922 Wanganui, New Zealand including research + 1 photos + more in the free family tree community.

www.wikitree.com

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Managed to get to the Gazette, some records are digitised so will chase that down.

 

[Gordon1552]

No pictures of Walter Ashton yet, but here's someone who might be related to him. Maybe a grandfather or a grand uncle. Not sure yet, but the photo is interesting.

Mathew Walter Ashton (1856-1922) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

Is this your ancestor? Explore genealogy for Mathew Ashton born 1856 Lyttleton, New Zealand died 1922 Wanganui, New Zealand including research + 1 photos + more in the free family tree community.

www.wikitree.com

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May be able to get something from Old Police records, a euphemism for Special Branch. I have lodged a request and will copy you in.

 

[one eyed spy]

This is supposed to be Walter Ashton. b.26May1907. d.23Apr1948 from Ancestry.

 

[Gordon1552]

This is supposed to be Walter Ashton. b.26May1907. d.23Apr1948 from Ancestry.
View attachment 967283

This is supposed to be Walter Ashton. b.26May1907. d.23Apr1948 from Ancestry.
View attachment 967283

Great photo. Teeth may be a bit good for our man in SA but I guess it depends when this pic was taken. Does this guy look to be about mid 30s?


There are some issues about the Police photographs and will publish later this week, so I wouldn't be writing this man off just yet. Thanks for finding this, it's much appreciated.

 

[one eyed spy]

Not sure if you will see this clearly but Ive found a mention of him in a NZ Police Gazette which lists his height as 5'7.5". Also says he has a scar on his abdomen and another small scar on his nose. Brown hair, blue eyes, fresh complexion.

 

[Redacted]

It would be good to know who the sailors were that reportedly smuggled him out of NZ. They would certainly be playing with fire if their identities were known by anyone protecting Ashton. Assuming Ashton did do a bunk with the loot, and wasn't bumped off by someone else to get the loot and leave the missing Ashton to wear the blame.

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[Gordon1552]

It would be good to know who the sailors were that reportedly smuggled him out of NZ. They would certainly be playing with fire if their identities were known by anyone protecting Ashton. Assuming Ashton did do a bunk with the loot, and wasn't bumped off by someone else to get the loot.

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Not out of the question that he did the bumping off?

 

[Redacted]

Not sure if you will see this clearly but Ive found a mention of him in a NZ Police Gazette which lists his height as 5'7.5". Also says he has a scar on his abdomen and another small scar on his nose. Brown hair, blue eyes, fresh complexion. View attachment 967979

Not out of the question that he did the bumping off?

Any number of scenarios are possible. I wonder if there are credible reports of him being sighted alive after his car was found, besides rumours?
The amount that Ashton allegedly went on the lam with, in hindsight, was peanuts compared to how much his bitter arch foe, Thomas Frederick Anderson, admitted to embezzling from the union on his death bed.
One wonders, the true extent of the events surrounding the Ashton disappearance.
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[Redacted]

Woomera in 1948

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[Redacted]

Welcome Barry.

The Rash Vow by Tamám Shud

The 1948 Somerton Man mystery , also known as the Tamám Shud mystery, got me interested in many diverse topics, including cryptography, DNA,...

blog.traish.net

An interesting find. A Rash Vow.

null - null

explore.bl.uk

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[Redacted]

I found proof yesterday that Wagner is indeed Hendon's cousin

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[Redacted]

Captain Spurgeon RAN, Military Attache to Washington pictured with other foreign observers to first nuclear weapons tests at Bikini Atoll in 1946

Captain Stanley Herbert King Spurgeon | Royal Australian Navy

Royal Australian Navy

www.navy.gov.au

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[Redacted]

Photos of Hiroshima taken by a sailor on HMAS Hobart. Exact date unknown.

HMAS Hobart's visit to Hiroshima

Hi. Is anyone able to advise an exact date of when HMAS Hobart first visited Hiroshima after the atomic bomb had been dropped (6 Aug 1945) ? The...

ww2talk.com

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[Redacted]

Professor M L E Oliphant also went to the first nuclear weapons tests at Bikini Atoll as a scientific observer

E W McAlpine went along as the reporter for Australian media

OBSERVERS LEAVE FOR BIKINI -

EN ROUTE TO BIKINI, June 10.—To-day a special U.S. Navy train—the Atomic Express—left Washington with 230 observers who are on their way to Bikini Atoll to watch the atomic bomb test on ...

trove.nla.gov.au

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[Redacted]

For everyone that complains... there would've been others that did not. Was SM 1 of them?

WOMAN INJURED IN ATOMIC RESEARCH CLAIMS $200,000 - New York (AAP) - The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) - 27 Nov 1946

Miss Doothy Burns, 30, has filed an action in the Federal Court for $200,000 damages for injuries arising from secret atomic research, in ...

trove.nla.gov.au

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[Redacted]

Side note on defectors:

"So as hard as it was for some KGB officers to stomach, they had to give the traitor a medal instead of shooting him. “Either Yurchenko is as smart as the devil himself,” one KGB officer concluded, “or he is the luckiest bastard alive.”"

.......

"The Russians were candid. Yurchenko, they said, was living in Moscow. He worked as a security officer at a Moscow bank. And one day, they said, if there was any justice, his body would be found “somewhere along the Moscow River.” Sooner or later, Vitaly Yurchenko was going to pay."

The Amazing Story of the Russian Defector Who Changed his Mind

A saga from the last time Moscow's spies menaced Washington—and the lessons we forgot.

www.washingtonian.com

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[Redacted]

A Final Rendezvous revisited

A friend of Mr Skirpov eh? No wonder ASIO had 3 files on Oliphant. This one's interesting, in as much as it's in the very timeframe that Skirpov received the burst transmitter from Moscow and passed it to "Sylvia" for delivery to Adelaide. similar timeframe when Oliphant was due to host visiting Russian scientists. This maybe the same flight that bought the burst transmitter to Australia.
A lot of redacted stuff and non disclosed pages in Oliphant's files btw

Part of RecordSearch unavailable

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[GreyCrow]

FamilySearch.Com has a Walter Ashton timeline ending in 1948.
Geni.com has a Albert Walter Ashton being issued a burial notice in NZ 1968.
However the Geni.com family tree swaps his forenames around. It maybe that they've conflated two different people by choosing the same birth year on both records and hence put him in the wrong family group, or as sometimes happens a person is declared legally dead after being missing for twenty years.
Only way to know is to get the 1968 burial notice from NZ for Albert Walter Ashton and see if it's the same man or see in what circumstances it was issued.
Couldn't find a death certificate in NZ so far, so I'm wondering if whoever's body it was shipped from overseas.
But so far, nothing to confirm it was him.

The FamilySearch.Com entry lists his wife and kids. The Geni.com entry does not, but lists the same siblings.

Presumably the FamilySearch.Com family tree was created by his immediate descendants and the Geni.com family tree by one of his siblings descendants. The FamilySearch.Com tree appears to be more reliable. There s no sources listed except what I added yesterday, which was to link both together

FamilySearch.org

Discover your family history. Explore the world’s largest collection of free family trees, genealogy records and resources.

ancestors.familysearch.org

Walter Ashton

Genealogy profile for Walter Ashton

www.geni.com

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

Registration Number	Family Name	Given Name(s)	Date of Birth/ Age at Death
1968/39173	Ashton	Albert Walter	60Y

Aged 60 ie 1908