John Banks Elliott (9 February 1917 – 18 July 2018)[1] was a Ghanaian diplomat and statesman.

He was Ghana's first Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Soviet Union,[2] serving from 1960 to 1966.

Born in 1917 to Gerald Barton Elliott, a lawyer and auctioneer at large, and Mary Wood-Elliott, a sacristan, he was named after his grandfather who came to the Gold Coast as a timber merchant with attention to detail; one of his passions was photography, J.

Banks Elliott's photographs of the Gold Coast showing trading stations, factories, towns, markets and people taken in 1880-1890 are archived at the Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies, Rhodes House, Oxford.

[4] Ambassador John Banks Elliott presented his first credentials to the then Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet Kliment Voroshilov On 1 July 1960, Ghana became an independent republic within the Commonwealth, and the first President of the Republic of Ghana Kwame Nkrumah reaccredited his appointment,[5] which he presented to the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council Leonid Brezhnev.