Frederick Ashton retirement in 1963, in the company known successively as the Vic-Wells Ballet, the Sadler's Wells Ballet and the Royal Ballet. He succeeded de Valois as director of the company, serving until his own retirement in 1970. Ashton is widely credited with the creation of a specifically English genre of ballet. Among his best-known works are "Façade" (1931), "Symphonic Variations" (1946), "Cinderella" (1948), "La fille mal gardée" (1960), "Monotones" I and II (1965), "Enigma Variations" (1968) and the feature film ballet "The Tales of Beatrix Potter" (1970). Ashton was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, the fourth of the five children of George
Leigh Ashton (museum director) Leigh Ashton (museum director) Sir Arthur Leigh Bolland Ashton (1897–1983) was a British art historian and director of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Ashton was the son of the jurist A. J. Ashton KC, a court recorder in Manchester. He was educated at Winchester College and Balliol College, Oxford. In 1945, he was appointed director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, taking over from Eric Maclagan. Ashton retired in 1955, and was succeeded by Trenchard Cox. In 1952, he married the fashion editor and academic Madge Garland, in a marriage of convenience. They divorced in 1962, and had no children.