WOMAN’S MASQUERADE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 8 March 1929, Page 5

WOMAN’S MASQUERADE

ASTONISHING FEATURES.

HER VARIED EXPERIENCES.

ORDEAL OF A TRIAL.

(United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph Copyright.) (Australian Press Association.) LONDON, March 6. It is now revealed that ‘ ‘ Captain Barker ’ ’ is Mrs Valerie Smith, who married an. Australian in .the war time. She is the mother of a nine-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl. She served with the V.A.D. in Franco and was' also a lorry driver. She started her masquerade six years ago, when she was poultry farming in Sussex. While she was at the West End hotel where she was eventually arrested, she shared a communal dressing room and drank beer and changed her clothes among the men. When her locker was opened it was found to contain dress clothes, eyebrow pencil, a powder puff which obviously had been used, also safety pins. There was a safety razor, but there no evidence that it had been used. It appears she had carried on her masquerade in many towns in England, particularly at Andover, where she had played cricket and tennis and was often seen in streets in flannels and shirt with an open neck. She often went shopping in pins fours. The astonishing fact that “ Captain Barker” went through the ordeal of a trial at Old Bailey for being in unauthorised possession of an automatic pistol and was acquitted, without suspicion. of her sex. This has aroused several women to say now that they were suspicious and tried to trap her, but the “Captain” always had a plausible explanation. The fact that she said that she- had a wife and a little boy contributed to* her immunity from suspicion. It is believed that she was married to a soldier who died after the: war, leaving hoy with a child unprovid ed for. The most startling revelation made during investigations into t?H3 caroei of “Captain Barker, - ” is that she was “married” in November, 1923, at Saint Peter's Church, Brighton, to Alfreda Emma Haward, aged 27, a daughter of a, chemist at Little Hampton. The parish curate performed the ceremonv, at which the girl's parents were present. The entry in the registrar describes the bridegroom as Victor Barker, aged 29, bachelor, independent son of William Barker, deceased. The Hawards learned o-nly to-day that the person who married their daughter was really oi woman. The mother says Barker courted her daughter as Sir Victor Barker for two years. He said ho was a baronet and kept worrying Alfreda to marry. HC' seemed a lino manly fellow and knew how to' make love t 0! a girl. Some members of the family opposed the match but the. daughter was set on Barker so they did not oppose the marriage, which was unhappy. The couple lived at Brighton, Hove, Andover and other places, but the daughter became miserable and said she felt compelled to leave her husband for ever and return home. She had stayed with her parents ever since, helping them with their little business. None of the papers give the full name of Barker’s Australian husband. The “Daily Telegraph” states that Barker, during her service in France was always noted for her masculinity. The Australian army officer named Smith, whom she married, subsequently returned to Australia.