Laura Ashley

Ashley was born at her grandmother's home, 31 Station Terrace, Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. She was raised in a civil service family as a Strict Baptist. The chapel she attended in Dowlais (Hebron) was Welsh language and although she could not understand it, she loved it, especially the singing. Educated at Marshall's School in Merthyr Tydfil until 1932, she was then sent to the Elmwood School, Croydon. She was evacuated back to Wales aged 13, but with so many World War II evacuees there were no school places left and she attended Aberdare Secretarial School.

An apron that purports to be the first garment made by her when a teenager hangs in the dining room of the Llangoed Hall Hotel near Brecon in Powys.

In 1942, at age 16, she left school and served in the Women's Royal Naval Service. During this period she met engineer Bernard Ashley at a youth club in Wallington. After the war, Bernard was posted to India with the Gurkhas, and the pair corresponded by letter. From 1945 to 1952, she worked as a secretary for the National Federation of Women's Institutes in London, marrying Bernard in 1949.

Laura and Bernard Ashley had four children who were all involved with the business. David (born 1954/55), the eldest son, designed the shops; one of the daughters, Jane, was the company photographer; another daughter, Emma, and their second son, Nick, were part of the company's fashion design team. Bernard was the company chairman and Laura kept a close eye on fabrics. The success of the business meant that the Ashleys could afford a yacht, a private plane, the French Château de Remaisnil in Picardy, and Rhydoldog House, a mansion near Rhayader, Powys, Wales, a town-house in Brussels, and the villa Contenta in Lyford Cay, New Providence, Bahamas.

Death

In 1985, just after her 60th birthday, Laura Ashley fell down the stairs of her daughter's home in the West Midlands and was taken to hospital in Coventry, where she died ten days later of a brain haemorrhage. She is buried in the churchyard of St John the Baptist, in Carno, Wales.

The Laura Ashley Foundation was set up in 1987; as the Foundation has been run by the late Sir Bernard and their children, the strategy has evolved from purely funding the arts to also funding broader community and social welfare projects. It was this evolution that prompted the change of name in 2011 from The Laura Ashley Foundation to The Ashley Family Foundation.