April Ashley

April Ashley MBE
Ashley at the Southbank Centre, 2009
Born	(1935-04-29)29 April 1935 Liverpool, England
Died	27 December 2021(2021-12-27) (aged 86) London, England
Resting place	Ford Cemetery
Other names	Toni April The Hon. April Corbett April West
Occupation(s)	model, activist, author
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)[1]
Spouses	The Hon. Arthur Corbett ​ ​ (m. 1963; ann. 1970)​ Jeffrey West ​ ​ (m. 1980; div. 1990)​
Parent(s)	Frederick Jamieson Ada Brown
Website	www.aprilashley.org

April Ashley MBE (29 April 1935 – 27 December 2021), styled from 1963 to 1970 as The Honourable April Corbett, was an English model, author, and LGBT rights activist. In the 1950s, upon being discharged from the Merchant Navy, she performed under the stage name Toni April at Le Carrousel de Paris in Paris. Ashley was outed as a transgender woman by The Sunday People newspaper in 1961 and was one of the earliest British people known to have had gender confirmation surgery. Her first marriage, to the future 3rd Baron Rowallan, was annulled in the High Court of Justice case of Corbett v Corbett. Ashley was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to transgender equality.