Jona von Ustinov

Jona Baron von Ustinov (aka Klop Ustinov (Клоп Устинов)) (Russian: Иона барон фон Устинов) (2 December 1892 – 1 December 1962) was a German journalist and diplomat who worked for MI5 during the time of the Nazi regime. He was the son of Baron Plato von Ustinov and father of the actor Sir Peter Ustinov.

Early life

Ustinov was born Jonah Freiherr von Ustinow in Jaffa, Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire, the son of Plato von Ustinov, a former Russian officer and naturalised citizen of the Kingdom of Württemberg, who had married Magdalena Hall, then living in Jaffa, the daughter of the Ethiopian court-lady Katharina Hall, also known as Welette-Iyesus and her husband Moritz Hall, a Jewish-born convert to Protestantism, cannon-caster of Negus Tewodros II of Ethiopia and missionary of St. Chrischona Pilgrim Mission in Ethiopia, and later in Jaffa. Magdalena and Plato von Ustinov had five children, Jonah being the eldest. Jonah von Ustinov disliked his first name and chose the nickname "Klop" ("Bedbug" in Russian), by which he was known to his friends and relatives for the rest of his life.