Annette Ashberry, known as Anne Ashberry, was a British engineer, gardener and author, and the first woman elected to the Society of Engineers.
13 Facts About Annette Ashberry
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Annette Ashberry was born in Hackney on 9 March 1894 to Israel and Leah Annenberg, part of a large Jewish immigrant family from Russia.
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Annette Ashberry's father changed their surname from Annenberg to Ashberry in response to the anti-German sentiment which built ahead of the First World War.
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Annette Ashberry began her career in engineering in 1916, inspecting fuses in a factory.
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Annette Ashberry had a keen interest in engineering which led to her working for British Thomson-Houston dealing with magnetos.
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Annette Ashberry joined the Galloway Engineering Company's Tongland factory near Kirkcudbright and became the Secretary of the Tongland Branch of the Women's Engineering Society, which was formed in 1919 following a visit of the first WES secretary Caroline Haslett.
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The end of hostilities brought a slowdown in her career opportunities, and Annette Ashberry began studying for a BSc in engineering at Loughborough Technical College.
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In 1920, Annette Ashberry founded Atalanta Ltd in Loughborough, along with Rachel Parsons, Caroline Haslett, Lady Eleanor Shelley-Rolls, Dora Turner, and Herbert Schofield, the head of Loughborough Technical College.
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In 1925, Annette Ashberry was the first woman to be elected to the Society of Engineers and delivered the first address by a woman to the Society's members on 1 November 1926.
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Annette Ashberry started a business in Kensington producing landscapes in ordinary window boxes which she sold to elderly and disabled gardeners and those living in flats.
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Annette Ashberry exhibited at Chelsea Flower Shows, The Festival of Britain Exhibition and on television.
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Annette Ashberry published 7 books, starting with Miniature Gardens in 1951.
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Annette Ashberry died in Chelmsford, Essex on 2 September 1990, aged 96.