13 Facts About Laura Ashley

Laura Ashley was a Welsh fashion designer and businesswoman.

Laura Ashley originally made furnishing materials in the 1950s, expanding the business into clothing design and manufacture in the 1960s.

Laura Ashley was raised in a civil service family as a Strict Baptist.

Laura Ashley 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.

When Laura Ashley looked for small patches carrying Victorian designs to help her make patchworks, she found no such thing existed.

Laura Ashley was originally registered as Ashley Mountney, but Bernard changed the name to Laura Ashley because he felt a woman's name was more appropriate for the type of products they were producing.

Laura and Bernard Ashley had four children who were all involved with the business.

Bernard was the company chairman and Laura Ashley kept a close eye on fabrics.

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.

Laura Ashley is buried in the churchyard of St John the Baptist, in Carno, Wales.

Two months after her death in 1985, Laura Ashley Holdings went public in a flotation that was 34 times oversubscribed.

Sir Bernard Laura Ashley died of cancer on 14 February 2009.

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 funding broader community and social welfare projects.