Tributes paid to transgender activist April Ashley

Born George Jamieson to a working-class family in Liverpool in 1935, Ashley joined the Merchant Navy as a teenager. The glamorous model appeared in Vogue

File photo dated 02/0270 of model April Ashley, 34, pictured at a press conference in London where Justice Ormrod had given his reserved judgement in a nullity action in the Divorce Court Picture: PA Wire

Tributes have been paid to model, actress and transgender activist April Ashley, who has died aged 86.

One of the first Britons to undergo gender reassignment surgery, she was made an MBE in 2012 for her campaigning work for the transgender community.