{{short description|Engineer, gardener and author, first woman elected to the Society of Engineers}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Annette Ashberry | image = Annette_Ashberry.jpeg | birth_name = Hannah Annenberg | birth_date = 9 March 1894 | birth_place = Hackney, London, England | death_date = 2 September 1990 | death_place = Chelmsford, Essex, England | other_names = Anne Ashberry | occupation = Engineer, gardener and author }} '''Annette Ashberry''' (9 March 1894 – 2 September 1990), also known as '''Anne Ashberry''', was a British engineer, gardener and author, and the first woman elected to the Society of Engineers.
== Early life == Annette Ashberry was born in Hackney on 9 March 1894 to Israel and Leah Annenberg,<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/account/signin?returnUrl=https%3a%2f%2fwww.ancestry.co.uk%2ffamily-tree%2fperson%2ftree%2f161193315%2fperson%2f392105212478%2fstory|title=Ancestry|website=www.ancestry.co.uk|access-date=2019-07-15}}</ref> part of a large Jewish immigrant family from Russia. She had six brothers and five sisters. Her father changed their surname from Annenberg to Ashberry in response to the anti-German sentiment which built ahead of the First World War.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=http://www.lboro-history-heritage.org.uk/the-life-of-annette-ashberry-a-pioneering-woman-engineer/|title=Loughborough History and Heritage Network {{!}} The life of Annette Ashberry – a pioneering Woman engineer|language=en|access-date=2019-06-19}}</ref>
== Engineering career == Like many women, Ashberry worked on munitions during the First World War. She began her career in engineering in 1916, inspecting fuses in a factory.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RAcNAQAAIAAJ&q=annette+ashberry|title=Careers for Girls|last=Cairns|first=J.A.R.|date=1928|publisher=Hutchinson & Company, Limited|pages=108|language=en}}</ref> She had a keen interest in engineering which led to her working for British Thomson-Houston dealing with magnetos.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.lookandlearn.com/history-images/M573021/Annette-Ashberry-AMSE|title=Annette Ashberry, AMSE|website=Look and Learn History Picture Library|language=en|access-date=2019-06-19}}</ref>
Ashberry joined the Galloway Engineering Company's (mainly female staffed) Tongland factory near Kirkcudbright<ref>{{Cite book|last=Robinson, Jane, 1959–|title=Ladies can't climb ladders : the pioneering adventures of the first professional women|year=2020|isbn=978-0-85752-587-1|location=London|oclc=1127181285}}</ref> and became the Secretary of the Tongland Branch of the Women's Engineering Society (WES), which was formed in 1919 following a visit of the first WES secretary Caroline Haslett.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=September 1919 |title=The Women's Engineering Society |journal=The Limit – A Record of Our Unlimited Talent |volume=3 |pages=9}}</ref> Ashberry and fellow Galloway Engineering Company engineer Dora Turner wrote about their views of the future of women in engineering, including the question "Would it not be possible for other firms to build and equip factories especially for women labour?".<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Ashberry|first1=A|last2=Turner|first2=D W|date=March 1920|title=Impressions from Kirkcudbright|url=http://www2.theiet.org/resources/library/archives/research/wes/WES_Vol_1.html|journal=The Woman Engineer|volume=1|issue=2|pages=12–13}}</ref>
The end of hostilities brought a slowdown in her career opportunities, and Ashberry began studying for a BSc in engineering at Loughborough Technical College.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bbuOiq0YEKYC&dq=annette+ashberry&pg=PA62|title=Eat My Dust: Early Women Motorists|last=Clarsen|first=Georgine|date=1 October 2008|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=9781421405148|pages=62|language=en}}</ref>
The newly formed Women's Engineering Society then encouraged her to open an engineering factory which focused on employing women. In 1920, 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.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Atalanta_Ltd|title=Atalanta Ltd – Graces Guide|website=www.gracesguide.co.uk|access-date=2019-06-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Women as Engineers: New company's promising start|date=23 February 1921|work=The Times|issue=42652|page=7}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|date=March 1921|title=Atalanta Ltd|url=http://www2.theiet.org/resources/library/archives/research/wes/WES_Vol_1.html|journal=The Woman Engineer|volume=1|issue=6|pages=59}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Heald, Henrietta|title=Magnificent women and their revolutionary machines|year=2019|isbn=978-1-78352-660-4|location=London|oclc=1080083743}}</ref>
After installing power to their basic premises, the women produced hand scraped surface plates and oil burners. After facing problems securing payments from customers, they reduced staff to just Annette and one other woman, and moved premises to London in hope of establishing business contacts there.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.lboro-history-heritage.org.uk/the-life-of-annette-ashberry-a-pioneering-woman-engineer/|title=Loughborough History and Heritage Network {{!}} The life of Annette Ashberry – a pioneering Woman engineer|language=en|access-date=2019-10-08}}</ref> In 1922, they moved to Brixton, London, and started to see successes.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pycDAAAAMBAJ&dq=annette+ashberry&pg=PA25|title=Popular Science|date=March 1927|publisher=Bonnier Corporation|pages=25|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|date=March 1923|title=Atalanta, Ltd.|url=http://www2.theiet.org/resources/library/archives/research/wes/WES_Vol_1.html|journal=The Woman Engineer|volume=1|pages=225}}</ref> The same year Ashberry won a prize from the Women's Engineering Society for the design of a dishwasher and obtained her first patent for a vegetable peeler.<ref name=":2" />
In 1925, 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.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal|date=1926|title=Proceedings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pYwiAQAAMAAJ&q=annette+ashberry|journal=Eastern Engineer|volume=17|pages=361}}</ref>
== Gardening career == By 1937, Ashberry had closed Atalanta Ltd. for business and moved into an entirely different field of work: miniature gardens.<ref name=":3" /> She started a business in Kensington producing landscapes in ordinary window boxes which she sold to elderly and disabled gardeners and those living in flats.
The Second World War brought a necessary return to engineering for Ashberry, but in 1945 she was able to purchase a cottage in Chignall Smealy and resume her miniature gardening business.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=https://www.britishpathe.com/video/miniature-gardens/query/Ashberry|title=Miniature Gardens|date=30 March 1952|website=www.britishpathe.com|publisher=British Pathé|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-06-20}}</ref> In this field she was better known as Anne Ashberry and became famous for her nursery and designs. She exhibited at Chelsea Flower Shows, The Festival of Britain Exhibition and on television. She published 7 books, starting with ''Miniature Gardens'' in 1951.<ref name=":2" /> A film about miniature gardens featuring Ashberry was made by British Pathé in 1952.<ref name=":3" /> Other notable books included ''Bottled Garden and Fern Cases'' (1964) and ''Alpine Lawns'' (1966).<ref>{{Cite news|title=Ideas for Alpine lawns and bottle gardens|last=Hay|first=Roy|date=26 November 1966|work=The Times|issue=56799|page=11}}</ref>
Ashberry died in Chelmsford, Essex on 2 September 1990, aged 96.<ref name=":4" />
== References == <references />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashberry, Annette}} Category:1894 births Category:1990 deaths Category:20th-century British women engineers Category:20th-century English women writers Category:Alumni of Loughborough University Category:Engineers from London Category:British gardeners Category:English military engineers Category:English nature writers Category:English people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:Jewish engineers Category:People from Hackney Central Category:Women's Engineering Society Category:Writers from the London Borough of Hackney Category:20th-century British engineers