My father, Kenneth Ashcroft, who has died aged 91, was a financial manager and director at a number of Britain’s best known companies during the 1970s, 80s and 90s, including Ford, Comet, Next, Dixons and Amstrad.
He was born in Preston, Lancashire, to James, an electrician, and his wife, Winifred, (nee Walker). The Ashcrofts shared a terraced three-bedroomed house with another family, and so for some of his early life Ken slept in the bath. As a youngster he taught himself to build radios and speakers, scouring Preston for electrical parts left behind by departing American forces after the second world war, and his interest in radio hamming lasted for the rest of his life.
