April Ashley

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April Ashley
An Evening With April Ashley at the Southbank Centre4.jpg
Ashley at Southbank Centre.
Born George Jamieson
(1935-04-29)29 April 1935
Liverpool, England, UK
Died 27 December 2021(2021-12-27)
London, United Kingdom
Residence Fulham, West London
Nationality British
Spouse(s) Arthur Corbett
(m. 1963; div. 1970)
Jeffrey West
(m. 1980s; div. 1990s)
Website www.april-ashley.com

April Ashley, MBE (born male as George Jamieson on 29 April 1935, died on 27 December 2021 aged 86) was an English model and restaurant host who appeared and acted as a female. He was outed as a transsexual woman by the Sunday People newspaper in 1961[1] and is one of the earliest British people known to have had sex reassignment surgery.

Early life

Born George Jamieson on 29 April 1935,[2] in Sefton General Hospital, Liverpool, he was one of six surviving children of a Roman Catholic father and a Protestant mother. In his childhood in Liverpool, Ashley suffered from both calcium deficiency, requiring weekly calcium injections at the Alder Hey Children's Hospital, and bed-wetting, resulting in him being given his own box room aged two when the family moved house.[3]

1950s to 1970s

He joined the Merchant Navy in 1951 at the age of 16.[2] Following a suicide attempt, he was given a dishonourable discharge[3] and a second attempt resulted in Ashley being sent to the mental institution in Ormskirk aged 17 for treatments.[2]

In his book The First Lady, Ashley tells the story of the rape he endured while still living as a man. A roommate raped him, and he was severely injured.[4]

Gender transition

After leaving hospital Ashley moved to London, at one point claiming to have shared a boarding house with then ship's steward John Prescott. Having started cross-dressing, he moved to Paris in the late 1950s, began using the name Toni April and joined the famous French entertainer Coccinelle in the cast of the drag cabaret at the Carousel Theatre.[2][5][6]

At the age of 25, having saved £3,000, Ashley had a seven-hour-long sex reassignment surgery in 12 May 1960, performed in Casablanca, Morocco by Georges Burou. All his hair fell out and he endured significant pain, but the operation was successful.[2][5][6]

Model, scandal

After returning to Britain, Ashley began using the name April Ashley and became a successful fashion model, appearing in such publications as Vogue (photographed by David Bailey[7]) and winning a small role in the film The Road to Hong Kong, which starred Bing Crosby and Bob Hope.[5][8][9]

After a friend sold his story to the media, in 1961 under the headline "'Her' secret is out", the Sunday People outed Ashley as a trans woman. He became a centre of attention and some scandal, and his film credit was instantly dropped.[1][9]

In November 1960, Ashley had met Hon. Arthur Corbett (later 3rd Baron Rowallan), the Eton-educated son and heir of Lord Rowallan. They wed in 1963, but the marriage quickly broke down. Ashley's lawyers wrote to Corbett in 1966 demanding maintenance payments and in 1967 Corbett responded by filing suit to have the marriage annulled. The annulment was granted in 1970 on the grounds that Ashley was male, even though Corbett knew about his history when they married.[2][5][7]

Later life

After a heart attack in London, Ashley retired for some years to the Welsh border town of Hay-on-Wye. In his book April Ashley's Odyssey he stated that Amanda Lear was born male as Alain Tapp and they had worked together at Le Carousel where Lear had used the name Peki d'Oslo.[3] Ashley was once great friends with Lear,[10] but according to Ashley's book The First Lady, they had a major falling out and haven't spoken in years.

In the 1980s, Ashley married Jeffrey West, on the retired cruise ship RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, California.[11] In 2005, after the passage of the Gender Recognition Act 2004, Ashley was finally legally recognised as a female and issued with a new birth certificate. The then Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom John Prescott, who knew Ashley from the 1950s, helped him with the procedure.[6]

Ashley talked about his life at St George's Hall, Liverpool as part of the city's Homotopia festival on 15 November 2008,[12] and on 18 February 2009 at the South Bank Centre.[13]

Ashley lived in Fulham, South West London.[9]

Death

The Liverpool Echo reported that Ashley died peacefully in London, on December 27, 2021, aged 86. The cause of death was not immediately disclosed.[14]

Biographies

April Ashley's Odyssey, a biography by Duncan Fallowell, was published in 1982.[3] In 2006, Ashley released his autobiography The First Lady[4] and made TV appearances on Channel Five News, This Morning and BBC News. In one interview, he said, "This is the real story and contains a lot of things I just couldn't say in 1982", including alleged affairs with Michael Hutchence, Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Turner Prize sculptor Grayson Perry and the future 19th Duke of Infantado, among others. However, the book was pulped[clarification needed] after it was discovered that it had heavily plagiarized the 1982 book written about Ashley.[15]

There is currently a film being produced by Pacific Films and Limey Yank Productions about April Ashley's life.[16]

Awards and honors

  • Ashley was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to transgender equality.[17][18]
  • A major exhibition 'April Ashley: portrait of a lady' was held at the Museum of Liverpool from 27 September 2013 to 1 March 2015.[19]
  • Ashley was awarded a Lifetime Achievement honour at the European Diversity Awards 2014.[20]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Corbett v Corbett (EWHC 1970). Text
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Identity - April Ashley's US Resident Alien identification card - Wellcome Collection; accessed 28 March 2015.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/liverpool-model-april-ashley-mbe-22590483
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 60173. p. . 16 June 2012.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mol/exhibitions/april-ashley/
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links


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