WELL-KEPT SECRET

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 18 November 1937, Page 11

WELL-KEPT SECRET

WOMAN WHO WORKED AS MAN CHEF TO PROMINENT FAMILY lUintcd Press Assouan mu- li.v Electric 'I elecruph—Copyright 1 NEW YORK, 16th November. ! A message from Oyster Buy says j that not until her death was the secret j which a chef to a socially prominent family had concealed for 14 years re- j vealed, namely that, though working as a man under the name of Alfred Grouard, she was really a woman. Moreover, her determination to keep her secret cost her her life, as she resisted every attempt to provide medical attention. It was disclosed after her death that she had been a victim of diabetes, a condition that might easily have been controlled by the use of insulin. The employer, who engaged a short stocky chef without references because "lie" impressed him as an efficient type of man, declared that Grouard was a faultless servant, having apparently only two interests in life —cooking and religion. Grouard never left her employer's estate for 14 years, never received a letter and never had a caller. When her health failed last year Grouard repulsed her employer’s physician hysterically, but her sex was discovered while she was under a coma.