AMAZING CAREER

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIX, Issue 67, 6 March 1929, Page 5

AMAZING CAREER

WOMAN WHO POSED AS ARMY OFFICER LEADER OF NATIONAL FASCIST! IN LONDON. MASQUERADED FOR FIVE YK.ARS (United Prase Association—By Cable— Copyright.] [Australian and N.Z. Press Association.] (Received 6, 1.0 p.m.) 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,’’ was one of the leaders of the National Fascisti in London, who ran a West End restaurant and was then employed as reception clerk by a big West End hotel, has been revealed by her arrest for contempt,’in failing to appear at a bankruptcy examination. The captain was taken to Brixton gaol, a man’s prison, where her secret was revealed. Apparently the sole reason for the astonishing episode, from her viewpoint, was that the world’s opportunities for men were greater than for women. She was enabled 1 to keep her secret by the fact that she was a fine boxer, a good companion and hunted in manly'fashion. She is tall and well built, with dark hair. Who the captain really is is still a mystery. Even the solicitor acting for her for years does not know and was astounded at the revelalion. She masqueraded for five years and was a familiar figure at Fascisti headquarters. 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 nnd sometimes she spoke of “her wife.” Latterly a woman called at her hotel to collect wages.