POSED AS MAN

Evening Star, Issue 20117, 6 March 1929, Page 11

POSED AS MAN

WOMAN’S REMARKABLE CAREER A GOOD BOXER AND MANLY HUNTER SECRET REVEALED IN PRISON Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, March 5. (Received March C, at 1 p.ia.) The amazing career of a woman who posed for years as an army officer under the name of Captain Leslie Ivor Victor Barker, was one of the leaders of the National Fascist! in London, who ran a West End restaurant, and was then employed as a reception clerk in a big West End hotel, has been revealed by her arrest for contempt ior failing to appear at a bankruptcy examination. The captain was taken to Brixton Gaol, the men’s prison, where her secret was revealed. Apparently the solo reason lor this astonishing episode, from her viewpoint, was that the world’s opportunities for men were greater than for women. She was enabled to keep her secret by the fact that she is a fine boxer, a good companion, and hunted in a manly fashion. She is tall, well built, and has dark hair. Who the captain really is is still a mystery. Even the solicitor who has been acting for her for years docs not know, and was astounded at the revelation. She masqueraded for live years, and was a familiar figure at the Eascisti headquarters. Her boxing acquaintances say that she said she had served in the Foreign Legion, and was made a staff officer in France. It is believed that she went to India in .1919, and sometimes she spoke of a wile. Latterly a woman called at the hotel to collect her wages.—Australian Press Association. The captain’s 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 that one of the woman’s friends gave the reason for the masquerade in the following words: —“The man she loved died under unknown circumstances, and she made a, solemn vow over his dead body that she would take his name and live the same kind of life that he lived.'’ When taken to Brixton she broke down and stammered; “1 am a woman.” The gaol authorities immediately transferred her to the women’s prison at Holloway.—Australian I’ress Association.