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Jack Ashley was born on 6th December 1922.  He was educated at elementary school and
left school at the age of 14 to work in the chemical process industry .  He was a member of
the Chemical Workers Union and by the age of 22 was a Trade Union Official.

He served in the Army and then won a scholarship to Ruskin College, Oxford where he
obtained a diploma in Economics and Political Science.  He went on to study at Cambridge
where he obtained a degree in Economics.   He was also President of the Union Society.  
He served as a Widnes Borough Councillor from 1946.

He was a researcher for the National Union for General and Municipal Workers and later
worked for the BBC as a Radio and Television Producer .

Between 1966 and 1992, Jack Ashley served as Member of Parliament  for Stoke-on Trent
South.  However, in December 1967, at the age of 45, he underwent a routine operation
to rectify a minor hearing problem he had had since childhood.   The operation went wrong
and he became totally deaf.  Although he considered giving up politics, colleagues  
encouraged him to continue as the only totally deaf member of any legislature in the world.

He became a vigorous campaigner, especially for disabled people, gaining cross-party
support and respect in Parliament.  In 1986, Jack Ashley and his wife, Pauline founded
Deafness Research U.K. because they believed that the key to preventing and finding a cure
for deafness was through research and the best way to generate sufficient funding was
through a dedicated charity.  Sadly, Lady Ashley died in 2003.

After 25 years of total deafness, Jack Ashley’s life was transformed by a cochlear implant
which partially restored his hearing.  At the 1992 General Election, he retired from the House
of Commons and soon after was made a Life Peer,  Baron Ashley of Stoke