Robert William Escourt Ashe

Maniyachi railway station, where Ashe was assassinated (currently renamed as Vanchi Maniyachi after the assassin)

Robert William d'Escourt Ashe I.C.S.^[1] (23 November 1872 – 17 June 1911) (Collector Ashe) was the acting Collector and District magistrate of Tirunelveli district^[2] during the British Raj.^[3] On June 17, 1911, he was assassinated by Vanchinathan at the Maniyachi railway junction (between Tirunelveli and Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu).^[4] and died within half an hour. His assassin Vanchi alias Sankara Aiyar of Shencotta in Travancore State committed suicide a few minutes after; he was accompanied by a youth named Sankara Krishna Aiyar who ran away, but was afterwards caught and convicted.^[2] Ashe was the first and only colonial official to be assassinated in South India during the Indian independence movement.^[5] The British government built a memorial for him at Tuticorin in 1913.^[6] That memorial is currently in dilapidated condition.^[7]

References

1. ^ Ashe papers
2. ^ ^{a b} Documents in the Life of Sri Aurobindo
3. ^ When Gandhi visited Madras
4. ^ Vanchi Maniyachi
5. ^ In The Foot Steps Of Ashe
6. ^ An Irish Link
7. ^ Memorial to man shot by Vanchinathan lies dilapidated