April Ashley
Encyclopedia
April Ashley is an English
model
and restaurant hostess. She was the first British
person to be outed
as a transsexual, which was by the Sunday People in 1961. She is also known as the first British person to undergo sex reassignment surgery
and the ninth in the world to have the surgery.
, Liverpool
, where she spent her childhood. She was one of six surviving children of a Roman Catholic father and a Protestant mother. She had suffered from calcium deficiency
and required weekly calcium injections at the Alder Hey Children's Hospital
. Because she wet the bed she was given her own box room aged two when the family moved house. She joined the Merchant Navy
at the age of 14. She had under-developed genitalia and by the age of 15 she had not developed secondary sexual characteristics. She attempted suicide
after returning home from the Merchant Navy and was sent to the mental institution in Ormskirk
for electric shock treatment
.
In her book The First Lady, Ashley tells the story of the rape she endured while still living as a man. A roommate raped her, and she was severely injured as a result of the sexual assault.
She moved to Paris
in the 1950s and using the name April E became a Drag Queen
. She joined the cast of the cabaret show at the Carousel Theatre with the famous French entertainer Coccinelle
.
Ashley had her seven hour long sex reassignment surgery
on 12 May 1960 in Casablanca, Morocco
under Dr Georges Burou
. All her hair fell out and she was in a lot of pain, but the operation succeeded.
After returning to England, Ashley became a successful fashion model, appearing in such publications as Vogue
(photographed by David Bailey) and winning a small role in the film The Road to Hong Kong
, which starred Bing Crosby
and Bob Hope
. Her credit, however, was dropped from the film after she was outed as transsexual by the Sunday People in 1961.
She married Hon. Arthur Corbett (later 3rd Baron Rowallan) in 1963. However, in 1970 Corbett had the marriage annulled on the grounds that Ashley had been born male, even though he knew about her history when they married.
After a heart attack in London, Ashley retired for some years to the Welsh border town of Hay-on-Wye
. In her book "April Ashley's Odyssey" she 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. Ashley was once great friends with fellow performer Amanda Lear. According to Ashley's book The First Lady, the two women had a major falling out and haven't spoken in years.
In the eighties, April married Jeffrey West, on the retired cruise ship RMS Queen Mary
in Long Beach, California
; and by all accounts is still married to same.
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 her with the procedure.
Most recently April gave talks on her life at St George's Hall
in Liverpool on 15 November 2008 and on 18 February 2009 at the South Bank Centre.
April now lives on her own in Fulham
, London
.
, Peter O'Toole
, Omar Sharif
, Turner Prize
sculptor Grayson Perry
and the future 19th Duke of Infantado, among others. However, the book was pulped after it was discovered that it had heavily plagiarized the 1982 book on Ashley. Most of the actors mentioned as being lovers of Ashley have denied the truth of these allegations.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
model
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
and restaurant hostess. She was the first British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
person to be outed
Outing
Outing is the act of disclosing a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender person's true sexual orientation or gender identity without that person's consent. Outing gives rise to issues of privacy, choice, hypocrisy, and harm in addition to sparking debate on what constitutes common good in efforts...
as a transsexual, which was by the Sunday People in 1961. She is also known as the first British person to undergo sex reassignment surgery
Sex reassignment surgery
Sex reassignment surgery is a term for the surgical procedures by which a person's physical appearance and function of their existing sexual characteristics are altered to resemble...
and the ninth in the world to have the surgery.
Biography
She was born Toni Jamieson on 29 April 1935, in Smithdown Road HospitalSmithdown Road, Liverpool
Smithdown Road is a street in Liverpool, England, which forms part of the A562. It is the location of Toxteth Park Cemetery and Wavertree Playground. Penny Lane junction, the subject of The Beatles song Penny Lane, is situated at the junction of Smithdown Road, Smithdown Place and Penny Lane...
, Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, where she spent her childhood. She was one of six surviving children of a Roman Catholic father and a Protestant mother. She had suffered from calcium deficiency
Hypocalcaemia
In medicine, hypocalcaemia is the presence of low serum calcium levels in the blood, usually taken as less than 2.1 mmol/L or 9 mg/dl or an ionized calcium level of less than 1.1 mmol/L or 4.5 mg/dL. It is a type of electrolyte disturbance...
and required weekly calcium injections at the Alder Hey Children's Hospital
Alder Hey Children's Hospital
Alder Hey Children Hospital is a children's hospital in West Derby, Liverpool. It is run by the Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust as part of the National Health Service in England...
. Because she wet the bed she was given her own box room aged two when the family moved house. She joined the Merchant Navy
Merchant Navy
The Merchant Navy is the maritime register of the United Kingdom, and describes the seagoing commercial interests of UK-registered ships and their crews. Merchant Navy vessels fly the Red Ensign and are regulated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency...
at the age of 14. She had under-developed genitalia and by the age of 15 she had not developed secondary sexual characteristics. She attempted suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
after returning home from the Merchant Navy and was sent to the mental institution in Ormskirk
Ormskirk
Ormskirk is a market town in West Lancashire, England. It is situated north of Liverpool city centre, northwest of St Helens, southeast of Southport and southwest of Preston.-Geography and administration:...
for electric shock treatment
Electroconvulsive therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy , formerly known as electroshock, is a psychiatric treatment in which seizures are electrically induced in anesthetized patients for therapeutic effect. Its mode of action is unknown...
.
In her book The First Lady, Ashley tells the story of the rape she endured while still living as a man. A roommate raped her, and she was severely injured as a result of the sexual assault.
She moved to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in the 1950s and using the name April E became a Drag Queen
Drag queen
A drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...
. She joined the cast of the cabaret show at the Carousel Theatre with the famous French entertainer Coccinelle
Coccinelle
Coccinelle is the French word for a ladybug . It may refer to:*a French transsexual actress and entertainer, see Coccinelle*an Italian leatherware and shoe manufacturer, see Coccinelle...
.
Ashley had her seven hour long sex reassignment surgery
Sex reassignment surgery
Sex reassignment surgery is a term for the surgical procedures by which a person's physical appearance and function of their existing sexual characteristics are altered to resemble...
on 12 May 1960 in Casablanca, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
under Dr Georges Burou
Georges Burou
Georges Burou was a French gynecologist who managed a clinic in Casablanca, Morocco and is widely credited with innovating modern sex reassignment surgery for trans women.Notable patients include Coccinelle, April Ashley and Jan Morris....
. All her hair fell out and she was in a lot of pain, but the operation succeeded.
After returning to England, Ashley became a successful fashion model, appearing in such publications as Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
(photographed by David Bailey) and winning a small role in the film The Road to Hong Kong
The Road to Hong Kong
The Road to Hong Kong starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Joan Collins, was the last in the long-running Road to … series and the only episode not produced by Paramount Pictures, though reference to the other films in the series are shown in Maurice Binder's opening title sequence...
, which starred Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
and Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
. Her credit, however, was dropped from the film after she was outed as transsexual by the Sunday People in 1961.
She married Hon. Arthur Corbett (later 3rd Baron Rowallan) in 1963. However, in 1970 Corbett had the marriage annulled on the grounds that Ashley had been born male, even though he knew about her history when they married.
After a heart attack in London, Ashley retired for some years to the Welsh border town of Hay-on-Wye
Hay-on-Wye
Hay-on-Wye , often described as "the town of books", is a small market town and community in Powys, Wales.-Location:The town lies on the east bank of the River Wye and is within the Brecon Beacons National Park, just north of the Black Mountains...
. In her book "April Ashley's Odyssey" she stated that Amanda Lear
Amanda Lear
Amanda Lear is a French singer, lyricist, composer, painter, TV presenter, actress and novelist....
was born male as Alain Tapp and they had worked together at Le Carousel where Lear had used the name Peki d'Oslo. Ashley was once great friends with fellow performer Amanda Lear. According to Ashley's book The First Lady, the two women had a major falling out and haven't spoken in years.
In the eighties, April married Jeffrey West, on the retired cruise ship RMS Queen Mary
RMS Queen Mary
RMS Queen Mary is a retired ocean liner that sailed primarily in the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard Line...
in Long Beach, California
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
; and by all accounts is still married to same.
In 2005, after the passage of the Gender Recognition Act 2004
Gender Recognition Act 2004
The Gender Recognition Act 2004 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that allows transsexual people to change their legal gender. It came into effect on 4 April 2005.-Operation of the law:...
, Ashley was finally legally recognised as a female and issued with a new birth certificate
Birth certificate
A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a child. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation of the ensuing registration of that birth...
. The then Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a senior member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The office of the Deputy Prime Minister is not a permanent position, existing only at the discretion of the Prime Minister, who may appoint to other offices...
John Prescott
John Prescott
John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott is a British politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. Born in Prestatyn, Wales, he represented Hull East as the Labour Member of Parliament from 1970 to 2010...
who knew Ashley from the 1950s, helped her with the procedure.
Most recently April gave talks on her life at St George's Hall
St. George's Hall, Liverpool
St George's Hall is on Lime Street in the centre of the English city of Liverpool, opposite Lime Street railway station. It is a building in Neoclassical style which contains concert halls and law courts, and has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building...
in Liverpool on 15 November 2008 and on 18 February 2009 at the South Bank Centre.
April now lives on her own in Fulham
Fulham
Fulham is an area of southwest London in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, SW6 located south west of Charing Cross. It lies on the left bank of the Thames, between Putney and Chelsea. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Biographies written about April Ashley
April Ashley's Odyssey, a biography by Duncan Fallowell, was published in 1982. In 2006, Ashley released her autobiography The First Lady and made TV appearances on Channel Five News, This Morning and BBC News. In one interview, she said, "This is the real story and contains a lot of things I just couldn't say in 1982", including details of her alleged affairs with Michael HutchenceMichael Hutchence
Michael Kelland John Hutchence was an Australian musician and actor. He was the founding lead singer-songwriter of rock band :INXS from 1977 to his death in 1997, a period of twenty years. Hutchence was a member of short-lived pop rock group Max Q and recorded solo material which was released...
, Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole
Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most...
, Omar Sharif
Omar Sharif
Omar Sharif is an Egyptian actor who has starred in Hollywood films including Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and Funny Girl. He has been nominated for an Academy Award and has won two Golden Globe Awards.-Early life:...
, Turner Prize
Turner Prize
The Turner Prize, named after the painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist under the age of 50. Awarding the prize is organised by the Tate gallery and staged at Tate Britain. Since its beginnings in 1984 it has become the United Kingdom's most publicised...
sculptor Grayson Perry
Grayson Perry
Grayson Perry is an English artist, known mainly for his ceramic vases and cross-dressing. Perry's vases have classical forms and are decorated in bright colours, depicting subjects at odds with their attractive appearance. There is a strong autobiographical element in his work, in which images of...
and the future 19th Duke of Infantado, among others. However, the book was pulped after it was discovered that it had heavily plagiarized the 1982 book on Ashley. Most of the actors mentioned as being lovers of Ashley have denied the truth of these allegations.
External links
- April Ashley's Odyssey The text and pictures from her 1982 book ISBN 0-224-01849-3
- April Ashley Photo Gallery Tribute
- How Prescott made a woman out of me - Daily MailDaily MailThe Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
profile, 3rd June 2006