A Liverpool Exemplar - April Ashley

 

Born George Jamieson to a working-class family in Liverpool on the 29th of April 1935, one of six children to Frederick, who served in the Royal Navy, and Ada, a factory worker. The family's poor living conditions meant they were soon moved by Liverpool Corporation from Pitt Street, in the Chinatown area, to Norris Green. Although born a boy, April always felt and looked like a girl. Childhood was a lonely and very confusing time and at primary school she was bullied for being different. April joined the Merchant Navy as a teenager but whilst on leave in America, and seeing no way out, she attempted suicide in 1952. After recovering she was given a dishonorable discharge but back in Liverpool she continued to struggle alone with her gender identity and in 1953 made another attempt to take her own life by jumping into the River Mersey. She was sent to Ormskirk Hospital psychiatric unit, where she later revealed she was raped and severely injured by a roommate, and later treated at Walton Hospital. She moved to London in 1955 at the age of 20 and with similar people in this more supportive environment she began to call herself 'Toni' and wear female clothes and make-up. Moving to Paris in 1956 was a natural next step with its sexual liberalism, freedom and openness and there, Le Carrousel de Paris was renowned for its spectacular performances by male and female impersonators, which attracted stars such as Ginger Rogers, Claudette Colbert, Marlene Dietrich and Rex Harrison. She was soon employed at the club and assuming a new identity and, using the theatrical name of 'Toni April', she performed alongside famous female impersonators, Coccinelle, Bambi and Peki d’Oslo. Her closest friend Bambi introduced her to a Parisian doctor who prescribed the female hormone estrogen which further assisted April's feminization before, having saved up enough money, she left for Casablanca on the 12th of May 1960 for the seven-hour-long operation which, although excruciating, made her the happiest she had ever been, she said in later interviews. 

In 1960 April returned to London and changed her name to 'April Ashley' by deed poll and obtained a passport and driving licence which identified her as female. With her statuesque good looks and newfound confidence she became a fashion model and actress. She was photographed for high profile publications such as Vogue and socialized with famous musicians, actors and members of London's high society and appeared in films including 'Road To Hong Kong' with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. In 1961 she met and began an affair with Arthur Corbett, an Eton-educated aristocrat who had frequented Le Carrousel and was fully aware of April’s history and gender re-assignment. Corbett left his wife and four children to begin a relationship with April. However her blossoming modelling career was cut short when the Sunday People outed her as transgender later in 1961. Having married Arthur Corbett in Gibraltar in 1963, the relationship soon broke down and she returned to London. Corbett petitioned for divorce in 1967 using the grounds that April was born male and therefore the marriage was illegal. The divorce in 1970 marked a landmark legal ruling when the judge ruled that she remained a biological man and that the marriage therefore was invalid.

 

She had opened a restaurant in Knightsbridge but found the media attention unbearable so, after a heart attack in 1975, she retreated to the Welsh countryside and later to the US West Coast to escape the prejudice and discrimination she faced at home, only returning to Britain in 2005 where she continued her campaign to have her true gender recognized. She lobbied and wrote to Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Lord Chancellor, remaining resolutely committed to changing the law for all transgender people. In 2005, after the passage of the Gender Recognition Act 2004, April was finally legally recognized as female and issued with a new birth certificate.

In 2012 she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to transgender equality and she continues to be an inspiration to many today. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws by the University of Liverpool in December 2016. In 2015 she was enlisted to offer Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne and director Tom Hooper an insight for their forthcoming project - The Danish Girl, the story of transgender pioneer Lili Elbe. She said, "I told him not to be coy, not to be camp, just to be himself vocally, You can always lighten up your voice without making it artificial. And he kept looking at all my gestures as we spoke, taking everything in."

April Ashley sadly died on the 27th of December 2021, at the age of 86.

Singer Boy George tweeted: "R.I.P April Ashley! A force of nature and transgender high priestess!" LGBTQ rights campaigner Peter Tatchell called her "the GREAT trans trailblazer for decades" and "hero".

see also:- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2021/09/a-liverpool-exemplar-john-weightman.html