Transvestite

The anomaly of transvestism consists in the desire for cross-dressing. . . . Transvestism is a sexo-esthetic inversion of pure artistic imitation. . . . It occurs mostly in persons endowed with a highly developed artistic taste--TRANSVESTISM--Bernard S. Talmey.

Stationed in the trig military centre of Andover, Hampshire, are some of His Majesty's most gallant officers and whole regiments of British Tommies who have a cocky, engaging eye for women. Last week these connoisseurs were utterly flabbergasted when they learned that Captain Leslie Ivor Victor Gauntlett Slight Barker, D. S. O., who was universally regarded in Andover as "a gentleman, and by gad a sportsman, Sir!" is in fact a transvestite-- one of the most remarkable of modern times.

Over the mantelpiece in the Officers' Club, there hangs a photograph showing several of its War-veteran members standing with their flag before the Empire's most sacred military shrine--the Cenotaph in Whitehall. Proudly erect and tall beside the flag bearer stands Captain Barker, wearing seven decorations, including the D. S. O. Last week in Andover the Captain's former valet, one Wrigley, exclaimed incredulously: "Why the Captain always left his razors and soap-filled brush for me to put away. And I used to take his boy for walks! A little tyke he was, and always talking about his daddy's exploits. I'm fair astonished! Blown, as you might say. How could anyone who wasn't at Mons know all the Captain knows about it?"

Many distinguished officers from Tid-worth barracks had, it appeared, ridden to hounds and played cricket with Captain Barker. "He ascribed his difficulty in throwing the ball to War wounds," said Dr. Farr of the Cricket Club last week, "I may have sometimes thought, mind you, that Barker was built 'all wrong.' He was. But there again, the poor feller was so terribly bashed in the War! Gad, I can't think of old Barker yet as a woman! The thing sticks and won't go down."

Even more remarkable was the statement of Mrs. Barker, the onetime Miss Alfreda Emma Howard, a country lass of Littlehampton, Sussex. She said last week that Transvestite Barker courted her "as any young man would"; and the Register of Brighton Parish Church reveals that they were married as man and wife on Nov. 14, 1923. "I am dazed, stunned!" exclaimed Mrs. Barker. "In our six years of married life I never once suspected that dear Victor was a woman too!" Mrs. Barker's father, a venerable druggist, added his affirmations of astonishment.

The Captain's two children, a boy of nine and a girl of eight, are his by a previous marriage. She--"Captain" Barker-- was originally Miss Lilias Irma Valerie Barker, daughter of a rich, landed proprietor on the Isle of Jersey, Thomas William Barker, who died some 15 years ago. Miss Barker was in service at Mons and elsewhere in the War area as a Red Cross nurse and ambulance driver. In 1918 she married an Australian officer, Colonel Harold Arkell Smith, who begot her two children. Some five years later she discovered her tendency to transvestism, yielded to it, renounced home and family, courted and married Druggist's Daughter Alfreda Emma Howard, moved to the congenial military centre of Andover, and found apparent happiness.

Captain Barker's means were apparently derived at this time from the British Organization of Fascists. As secretary of these young, Conservative zealots she led them in numerous "Raids on Reds" during the British General Strike, and did valiant service in breaking up Communist mass meetings in Hyde Park.

With the recent disbandment of the British Fascists, Captain Barker, penniless, sent Mrs. Barker home to her druggist father, exchanged her military uniform for a sleek cutaway, and was employed early last week to welcome guests with unctuous politeness by London's irreproachable Regent's Palace Hotel.

Unable to pay a judgment assessed by a London court, last week, Reception Clerk Barker submitted quietly to arrest for "contempt of court," and was driven in a patrol wagon to Brixton Prison for males. After scrutinizing Transvestite Barker, the prison surgeon ordered her transferred to Holloway Jail for females. Some 24 hours later the Bankruptcy Court ordered her release, and she left Holloway Jail in women's clothes by a side entrance, thus escaping the peering eyes of a vulgar throng of at least 1,000 male and female Britons, most of whose vocabularies do not even yet contain the noun transvestite, the verb transvestize, the adjective transvestile, the adverb transvestily. Example: 'Transvestizing herself she became transvestile so transvestily that she may fairly be called a transvestite."

The newspaper of world's largest circulation, London's Daily Mail, presently presented its 2,000,000 readers with My Own Story by "Captain Barker." Excerpts:

"I was reared as a boy and always thought a boy had a jolly good time.

"The first tragedy of my life was when the man I loved and should have married was made a prisoner early in the War. Now I am fond of nobody and have no feelings--I only adore my son."