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
Claude Ashton and was the youngest of four sons of Hubert Shorrock Ashton and of Victoria Alexandrina Ashton (née Inglis). Ashton's mother, Victoria, was the daughter of Sir John Eardley Wilmot Inglis, who commanded the British forces at the Siege of Lucknow, and Julia Selina Thesiger. His brothers included Hubert, Gilbert and Percy all of whom played first-class cricket. Claude was educated at Winchester College where he was captain of cricket, football, racquets and fives. He then went up to Trinity College, Cambridge and earned his blue at hockey, cricket and football. When Claude Ashton and his two brothers, Hubert and Gilbert,