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.

File photo dated 30/01/18 of April Ashley attending The Oldie of the Year Awards, at Simpsons in the Strand, central London. Picture: Kirsty O'Connor/PA Wire

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”.

“I was so honoured to know & support her in a past era when she was reviled after being outed as trans,” he said.

Trans activist and actor Jake Graf wrote: “A true trailblazer of the trans community has left us. April Ashley MBE was the definition of grace and humility, despite having fought hard throughout her life for her place in society.

“A true queen. Gone, but never forgotten. Rest in power.” Artist Daniel Lismore said Ashley was “a pioneer and a great British icon, she was a beautiful and gracious woman and her humour was legendary”.

File photo dated 13/12/12 of April Ashley being made a Member of the British Empire (MBE) by the Prince of Wales during an Investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace in central London. Picture: Lewis Whyld/PA Wire

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

After repeated suicide attempts and a stint in a psychiatric unit, she moved to London in 1955 and then to Paris.

Performing at Le Carrousel nightclub, which was famous for its drag acts, she saved up money for the operation.

April Ashley with her Member of the British Empire (MBE) medal following an Investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace in central London.  Picture: Sean Dempsey/PA Wire

Ashley travelled to Casablanca, Morocco, in 1960 and underwent the surgery.

Though excruciating, the procedure made her the happiest she had ever been, Ashley said in later interviews.

Back in England, she obtained a passport and driving licence which identified her as female.

File photo dated 11/05/62 of April Ashley at London Airport before her flight to Gibraltar. Picture: PA Wire

A year later, she was being photographed for the pages of Vogue magazine as a top London fashion model and appeared in films including Road To Hong Kong.

But her blossoming modelling career was cut short when the Sunday People outed her as transgender later in 1961.

File photo dated 09/12/69 of April Ashley after her court case in which her husband, Arthur Corbett, is seeking a declaration that the marriage ceremony in September 1963 at Gibraltar register office was null and void. Picture: PA Wire

In 1963, she married aristocrat Arthur Cameron Corbett.

Their 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 moved to the US west coast to escape the prejudice and discrimination she faced at home, only returning to Britain in 2005, when she was legally recognised as female thanks to the Gender Recognition Act.

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. He ruled that Miss Ashley's register office marriage to Mr Arthur Cameron Corbett was void. The judge held it was established that Miss Ashley was not a woman at the time of the marriage and was at all times a man.

Ashley was made an MBE in 2012 for her campaigning work for the transgender community.