LGBTQ+ History Month 2022: Remembering April Ashley

April Ashley was a successful model, actor and transgender activist. Although she died in December 2021, her legacy lives on.

She was photographed for Vogue by David Bailey and appeared in the 1962 film ‘Road to Hong Kong’. Her work with Tim Walker is currently on display at the Museum of Liverpool.

Ashley was only the second person in the UK to undergo gender reassignment surgery. After the surgery, which took place in Morocco, she registered as a woman. The Sunday People newspaper outed Ashley as a trans woman in 1961 after a friend sold her story.

Ashley’s connection to Lewisham is a result of her marriage to, and subsequent divorce, from Arthur Corbett in a lawsuit which famously became known as Corbett vs Corbett. Arthur was the grandson of Archibald Corbett, who gave his name to the Corbett Estate in Catford.

The lawsuit sparked controversy in 1966 as Ashley’s status as a woman wasn’t recognised and marriage between men was illegal at the time. Corbett was granted an annulment in 1970 on the grounds that Ashley was male. A legal decision she later described as “cruel”.

To escape the prejudice she faced at home, Ashley left the UK and moved to the US west coast - only returning to Britain in 2005 when she was legally recognised as female under the Gender Recognition Act.

In 2012, April Ashley was awarded an MBE for her work as a transgender campaigner.