William Franklin Ash MBE (born 30 November 1917) is an American-born British writer and Marxist and served as a pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II. Born into a lower-middle-class family in Dallas, Texas, Ash was a migrant worker during the U.S Great Depression and graduated from the University of Texas with a BA degree, doing privileged pupils' essays in order to gain money and also for his personal development as an author. It was around this time when the Spanish Civil War broke out, and the largely apolitical Ash, driven by a hatred of bullies and fascism, decided that if the war was still going when he was old enough to fight (aged 21), he would join the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.