20th Century Joan

As Joan of Arc wept before her inquisitors when she was ordered to dress herself once more as a woman, so wept last week in Marylebone Police Court strapping Mrs. Lilias Irma Valerie Barker Smith, who successfully posed for six years as heroic "Captain Barker, D. S. O." (TIME, March 18, 25).

Defiant when first deprived of her swag- gerpants, she sat sullenly huddled in unaccustomed skirts as the Crown Prosecutor charged her with perjury--i. e., with falsely swearing on several occasions that she was "Captain Leslie Ivor Victor Gauntlett Slight Barker."

Not however until the Crown brought into court Miss Alfreda Emma Howard-- the simple chemist's daughter from Littlehampton, Sussex, who married "Captain Barker" in 1923 believing her to be a man --did Mrs. Barker break completely down and sob aloud.

Miss Howard, placed on the stand, repeated substantially what she had said earlier to correspondents: "In all our married life I never once suspected that dear Victor was a woman, too!"

When the further charge of "false declaration" was read out Mrs. Smith rose--standing full half a head taller than anyone else in the court--and listened with streaming eyes to the accusation of the Crown that she had falsely declared herself a "bachelor" prior to espousing Miss Howard.

As the damning word "bachelor!" was uttered, Mrs. Smith swayed, clutched at a chair, and then sprawled prostrate before the Court in a dead faint. As several policemen carried Mrs. Smith from the court room correspondents pounced upon Miss Alfreda Howard who does not yet seem to realize that her Victor was not a man.

"Just fancy!" said Miss Howard. "Why, more than once we went swimming together. Nobody raised any question at the time. He had a number of scars on his back and neck. These he said had been caused by shrapnel. He was a man of very nervous temperament and highly strung. I often asked him what was worrying him and he would say 'Oh nothing at all, only depression.' "

"I did not notice the Captain's depression," said Valet Wrigley, former batman for "Captain Barker." "The married life of Captain and Mrs. Barker was most amiable as you might say."