Jack Ashley, Baron Ashley of Stoke

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"Jack Ashley" redirects here. For the Australian rules footballer, see Jack Ashley (Australian footballer). For the English footballer, see Jack Ashley (footballer, born 1912).

Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
10 July 1992 – 20 April 2012
Life Peerage
Member of Parliament
for Stoke-on-Trent South
In office
31 March 1966 – 16 March 1992
Preceded byEllis Smith
Succeeded byGeorge Stevenson
Personal details
Born(1922-12-06)6 December 1922
Widnes, Lancashire, England
Died20 April 2012(2012-04-20) (aged 89)
Political partyLabour
SpousePauline Kay Crispin
Children3; including Jackie
Alma materRuskin College
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge

Jack Ashley, Baron Ashley of Stoke,

House of Commons for Stoke-on-Trent South for 26 years, from 1966 to 1992, and subsequently sat in the House of Lords
. He was a long-time campaigner for disabled people.

Early life and education

Ashley was born in

Second World War, and then won a scholarship to study at Ruskin College
, where he received a Diploma in Economics and Political Science in 1948.

He continued his studies at

Monitor
.

Member of Parliament

He served on

palantype transcription system developed by Alan Newell, Andrew Downton and others at the University of Southampton
– this allowed a palantype secretary seated in the public gallery to type what was being said in real time and Ashley could read the transcribed English text from a discreetly-placed monitor at his seat.

The first known use of the term "

civil unrest, violence from within a country as opposed to violence perpetrated by a foreign power.[4][5][nb 1]

Disability campaigner

He became a tireless campaigner for disabled people, especially those who were deaf or

Privy Council
in 1979.

He also received a Doctor of Humane Letters from the Gallaudet University, the world's only university for the deaf, in 1975 for his efforts on behalf of deaf and hard-of-hearing persons.

Ashley's ability to follow the proceedings of the House of Commons helped inspire the development of

Southampton University doctoral student to develop a computer programme that would convert stenographic output to normal printed text as subtitles to television programmes.[8] Later, Ashley also used the technique to follow parliamentary debates on a small monitor .[citation needed
]

Ashley received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1979.[9]

In 1986, Ashley and his wife founded the charity

Defeating Deafness, now known as Deafness Research UK. He retired from the House of Commons at the 1992 general election and was created a life peer as Baron Ashley of Stoke, of Widnes in the County of Cheshire on 10 July 1992.[10]

He received a cochlear implant in 1993 which restored much of his hearing. In 1996, he founded the Graham Fraser foundation in memory of Graham Fraser, the procedure's pioneer in the United Kingdom, in order to fund hearing loss research.[11]

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in October 1974 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews while playing badminton in the back garden of his home in Epsom.

Personal life

Ashley married Pauline Kay Crispin (1932–2003) in 1951; she died aged 70 in Surrey. They had three daughters, including journalist Jackie Ashley. His son-in-law was television presenter Andrew Marr through Marr's marriage to Jackie.[12]

Ashley contracted pneumonia, and died on 20 April 2012, at the age of 89.[13]

Notes

  1. ^ Compare the 18 July 1877 request for help sent to President of the United States Rutherford B. Hayes by West Virginia governor Henry M. Mathews following the outbreak of strikes and riots: "Owing to unlawful combinations and domestic violence now existing at Martinsburg and other points along the line of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, it is impossible with any force at my command to execute the laws of the State."[6]: 24–5 

References

  1. ^ Obituary at bbc.co.uk
  2. ^ National Women's Aid Federation Archived 2012-01-13 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ^ House of Commons Sitting (1973) Archived 2012-10-24 at the Wayback Machine Battered Women.
  4. ^ "Domestic violence in the Times: From civil unrest to spouse abuse". The New York Times. 10 September 2014. Archived from the original on 22 July 2016. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
  5. ^ "The federalist papers : no. 43 The same subject continued (The powers conferred by the constitution further considered)". Yale Law School, Avalon Project, Documents in History, Law and Diplomacy. Archived from the original on 26 March 2016. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
  6. ^ McCabe, James Dabney; Edward Winslow Martin (1877). The History of the Great Riots: The Strikes and Riots on the Various Railroads of the United States and in the Mining Regions Together with a Full History of the Molly Maguires. National Publishing Company. p. 15. The History of the Great Riots and Full History of the Molly Maguires.
  7. ^ "No. 46444". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1975. p. 23.
  8. ^ "The Teletext Museum". teletext.mb21.co.uk. Archived from the original on 3 August 2001. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
  9. ^ "Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh: Honorary Graduates". www1.hw.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 18 April 2016. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  10. ^ "No. 52991". The London Gazette. 15 July 1992. p. 11899.
  11. ^ "The Graham Fraser Foundation | The Graham Fraser Foundation". Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  12. ^ "First deaf MP Lord Ashley dies", Belfast Telegraph, 21 April 2012
  13. ^ "Obituary: Lord Ashley", BBC News, 21 April 2012

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent South
1966–1992 		Succeeded by
George Stevenson
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