LAURA ASHLEY
Name: Laura Ashley
Born: 7 September 1925
Died: 17 September 1985
Laura Ashley CBE, (7 September 1925 - 17 September 1985) was a Welsh designer.
She became a household name on the strength of her work as a designer and
manufacturer of a range of colourful fabrics for clothes and home furnishings.
Born Laura Mountney in Station Terrace in Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil, Laura 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 the
language, 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, and after attending the Aberdare Secretarial School,
she left school at 16. In World War II, she served in the Women's Royal Naval
Service, and then from 1945 to 1952 as a secretary for the National Federation
of Womens Institutes in London. She met engineer Bernard Albert Ashley, latterly
Sir Bernard, at a youth club in Wallington, whom she married in 1949
While working as a secretary and raising her first two children, part time she
designed napkins, table mats and tea-towels which Sir Bernard printed on a
machine he had designed in an attic flat in Pimlico, London
The couple had invested £10 in wood for the screen frame, dyes and a few yards
of linen. Laura's inspiration to start producing printed fabric came from a
Women's Institute display of traditional handicrafts at the Victoria & Albert
Museum. When Laura looked for small patches carrying Victorian designs to help
her make patchworks, she found no such thing existed. Here was an opportunity,
and she started to print Victorian style headscarves in 1953.
Name: Laura Ashley
Born: 7 September 1925
Died: 17 September 1985
Laura Ashley CBE, (7 September 1925 - 17 September 1985) was a Welsh designer.
She became a household name on the strength of her work as a designer and
manufacturer of a range of colourful fabrics for clothes and home furnishings.
Born Laura Mountney in Station Terrace in Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil, Laura 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 the
language, 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, and after attending the Aberdare Secretarial School,
she left school at 16. In World War II, she served in the Women's Royal Naval
Service, and then from 1945 to 1952 as a secretary for the National Federation
of Womens Institutes in London. She met engineer Bernard Albert Ashley, latterly
Sir Bernard, at a youth club in Wallington, whom she married in 1949
While working as a secretary and raising her first two children, part time she
designed napkins, table mats and tea-towels which Sir Bernard printed on a
machine he had designed in an attic flat in Pimlico, London
The couple had invested £10 in wood for the screen frame, dyes and a few yards
of linen. Laura's inspiration to start producing printed fabric came from a
Women's Institute display of traditional handicrafts at the Victoria & Albert
Museum. When Laura looked for small patches carrying Victorian designs to help
her make patchworks, she found no such thing existed. Here was an opportunity,
and she started to print Victorian style headscarves in 1953.