April Ashley: The model, actress and activist who fought tirelessly for transgender rights

Model, actress and activist April Ashley has been hailed a "trans trailblazer" following her death at the age of 86.

One of the first Britons to undergo gender reassignment surgery, Liverpool-born Ashley was made an MBE in 2012 for her campaigning work for transgender rights.

Singer Boy George tweeted: "R.I.P April Ashley! A force of nature and transgender high priestess!"

LGBT+ 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".

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

After repeated attempts to take her own life 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 her surgery.

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

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 with female gender markers.

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, without her consent, as a transgender woman later in 1961.

In 1963, she married aristocrat Arthur Cameron Corbett.

Their divorce in 1970 marked a landmark legal ruling when the judge introduced the concept of "legal sex" for the first time by misgendering Ashley as male.

The marriage was annulled.

She moved to the US west coast to escape the prejudice and discrimination she faced in the UK, only returning in 2005 after the passing of the Gender Recognition Act.

The act finally allowed for Ashley to be recognised by law as a woman.

Ashley was made an MBE in 2012 for her campaigning work for trans rights and equality.