DECADE OF DECEPTION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16948, 11 May 1929, Page 5

DECADE OF DECEPTION

ANOTHER MASQUERADE WOMAN LIVED AS MAN "MARRIED" FOR FOUR YEARS (Elcc. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assii.) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) (Received May 11, 10 a.m.) LONDON, May 10. Another remarkable case of successful masquerade has been revealed in Evcrsham, Worcestershire, where a woman lived for four years as the husband of another woman. She masqueraded and was known as William Sydney Holtom. She was 42 years of age and was employed as a timber carter. Her identity was revealed when she was admitted to hospital. The wife, who was Mabel Lincoln, of Birmingham, says she is astounded at the revelation. She said: "It is unbelievable that he is a woman. The voice was that of a normal man. He was always of great strength and smoked all day long a clay pipe. He had for years been engaged with a team of horses hauling timber. He had friends and .always was well liked. He lived with two other women beforo me.'' It is believed that, Holtom has been posing as a man for nearly a decade. She is now critically ill with enteric fever. THE AMERICAN SENSATION WOMAN KNOWN IN N.Z. ' MASCULINE HABITS (Special to the Herald.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. "A small and slight woman who affected a man's coat, a tweed skirt, a man's waistcoat and collar, mannish in her airs, and mannish in her bearing." That is what a Christchurch man, throwing his memory back 20 years, recollects of a Miss Morton, whom he believes was the Miss Deresley Morton, the New Zealander who announced on her death-bed at Oakland, California, that for 20 'years she had been masquerading as a man, Peter Stratford by name.

The cable message telling of her death said Miss Morton came to New York "many years ago from New Zealand, and quickly became known for her literary ability." When Miss Morton lived in Christchurch she was engaged in journalism. Her mannish bearing and appearance naturally won her many friends among men, with whom she was on terms of the easiest camaradie. She smoked cigarettes, which was considered quite outrageous in those days, and generally tried to affect the manners and costume of a man as closely as she could. It is stated that the Christchurch City Council objected to' her reporting its meetings, since it was likely- at times to discuss questions unfit for women's ears.