John Ash (1723 – 18 June 1798), was an English physician and founder of Birmingham General Hospital.

[1] Ash was born in Coventry, Warwickshire, the son of a brewer, and was educated at Trinity College, Oxford; was B.A.

While actively engaged in practice he became affected with temporary mental derangement, for which it is said he found a cure in the study of mathematics and botany.

He was admitted a candidate of the Royal College of Physicians on 22 December 1786, and in the following year resigned his office in Birmingham and removed to London.

He is also commemorated by a blue plaque, affixed to the House of Fraser store in Temple Row, Birmingham.