●REST IN PEACE QUEEN APRIL ASHLEY😢😢😭
April Ashley MBE, model and actress who became one of Britain’s first trans women to undergo bottom surgery.
She overcame a tough childhood and disastrous court case to become a senior figure in the trans community.
By the age of 14 Ashley escaped her miserable home life by joining the Merchant Navy. Following two suicide attempts Ashley endured a year-long stay at a mental hospital, where she was pumped with male hormones and subjected to electric shock treatment.
The exhibition features a recreation of the Parisian drag club where Ashley began working once she had been released from hospital. It was here that Ashley met a patient of Dr Georges Boru, a Casablancan surgeon providing gender realignment surgery. Having saved the £3,000 required for the operation, she became his ninth patient and April was born in 1960.
From there Ashley went on to a career as a model for the likes of David Bailey, becoming one of Vogue’s most popular underwear models. Her success, however, was short lived after a ‘friend’ revealed her secret to the Sunday People for £5.
Following her modelling career Ashley continued to stay in the headlines as her marriage to Arthur Corbett was annulled as the judge declared that she was still a biological male and therefore the marriage was invalid.
Ashley has remained an icon as she has continued to bring transgender issues into the social consciousness. Her years of battling adversity were recognised in 2012 when she was awarded an MBE for her work with the transgender community.
YOU WILL SORELY BE MISSED!😢😢😢😢😢 ... See more
