Ashton was born in
Islington, London, a son of
Julian Rossi Ashton and his wife
Eliza Ann Pugh, who with their family moved to
Melbourne in 1878, and
Sydney five years later, where his father founded his famous
art school. Ashton became a junior shipping reporter of
The Sydney Morning Herald but, two years later, he moved to
Melbourne, where he was given the position of reporter by
The Argus. He also drew portraits for the
Sydney Daily Telegraph in his late teenage years and early adulthood. By his early twenties, Ashton had become a well-known figure in the local media and newspaper companies, writing music, literary and
art reviews. He was given the title of music critic in 1910. Ashton was celebrated for his short stories in
The Bulletin, following which success he began selling his paintings in art galleries, then began writing for British magazines such as
Pall Mall Gazette and ''
Chambers's Journal''. He became a respected and dedicated member of magazines and newspaper companies. He resumed his criticism of music, and other arts in 1926, when he was made an associate editor. Ashton had never worked as a full-time artist; however despite this, in 1938 he won the
Sydney sesquicentenary prize for landscape drawings. Ashton was, as well as an artist, a musician who had been known to entertain guests and lodgers at his
Mosman house; it was because of this that the suggestion of forming the first Sydney String Quartet was put forward. Ashton was an amateur entomologist specialising in
cicadas. He was president of the
Royal Art Society from 1942 to 1945 or later (his father held that office 1897–1898 and 1907–1921). Ashton died at age 86 in
New South Wales and was cremated. ==Family==