AMAZING SECRET REVEALED

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 138, 7 March 1929, Page 11

AMAZING SECRET REVEALED

WOMAN POSES AS ARMY CAPTAIN SUCCESSFUL DECEPTION FOR MANY YEARS £•. REAL IDENTITY STILL A MYSTERY 1 (United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Australian Press Association. - London, March 5. The amazing career of a woman who posed for years as an Army officer, under the name of Captain Leslie Ivor Victor Barker, one of the leaders of the National Fascist! in London, .who ran a West End restaurant, and then was reception clerk at a big West End hotel, was revealed after her arrest for contempt of Court in falling to appear for bankruptcy examination. The “Captain” was taken to Brixton Gaol, a men’s prison, where the secret was revealed. Apparently the sole reason for this astonishing episode is the lady’s viewpoint that tbp world’s opportunities for men are greater than for a woman. She was enabled to keep her secret by the fact’that she was a fine boxer, a good companion, and hunted in manly fashion. The “captain” is tall, well built, with dark hair. Who the captain really is is still a mystery. Even the solicitor who has been acting for her for years does not know, and . was astounded at the revelation that she has masqueraded for five years. She was a familiar figure at the Fascist! headquarters. Boxing acquaintances say that the “captain” said that he had served in the Foreign Legion, and was made a staff officer in France. It is believed he went to India in 1919. Sometimes he spoke of his wife. Latterly a woman called at the hotel to collect his wages. The masquerade was so successful that up to to-day the woman’s real name was known only to a select few. The “Daily Herald” asserts z’.at one of the woman’s friends gave the reason for the masquerade in the following words: “The man she loved died—l do not know the circumstances—and she made a solemn vow over his dead body that she would take his name and live the same kind of life he had lived.” When taken to Brixton the captain broke down and stammered: “I’m a woman.” The gaol authorities immediately transferred her to the women's prison at Holloway.