Dame Peggy Ashcroft

A memorial stone to actress Dame Peggy Ashcroft was unveiled in Poets' Corner Westminster Abbey on 7th June 2005. The lettering is by Lida Kindersley and the stone is near the grave of Laurence Olivier. The inscription reads:

Peggy Ashcroft D.B.E. Actress 1907 1991

Edith Margaret Ashcroft was born in Croydon, a child of William (who was killed in the Great War) and his wife Violet (Bernheim). Against parental advice she went on the stage and made her debut in 1926. She played opposite Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier and was well known for her Shakespearian and classical roles. She married three times and had a daughter Eliza and son Nicholas by her third husband Jeremy Hutchinson. In her later career she appeared in more films. A memorial service was held in the Abbey.

Her ashes were scattered at Stratford upon Avon.

Further reading

"Peggy Ashcroft" by M. Billington, 1988

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2004