MAN-WOMAN MYSTERY

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 985, 30 May 1930, Page 12

MAN-WOMAN MYSTERY

EVA BECOMES EVAN AFTER 29 YEARS

A VILLAGE SENSATION A handsome “woman' - of 29 has arranged to be married to a girl this Easter at a Wesleyan church in Dorset. The announcement has caused a rare sensation in the small market town of Tisbury, South Wiltshire, where “she” has lived all “her’’ life. Tt* case of Eva Mary Burtt is one. of the most amazing known to medical science. She has lived all her life as a girl, and now announces that she is a man. Girl. Friend Bride During “her” career “she’’ has been a domestic servant, an institution nurse, a chapel soloist, and a local preacher. “She” is to marry a fellow nurse. Miss Sarah Matilda Edwards, a close personal friend and fellow assistant in the institution where "she” was formerly employed. Eva Burtt was registered at birth as . a A few weeks ago an application was made to the Tisbury Registrar for the correction of the certificate from female to male, with a change of name from Eva to Evan. After medical evidence had been supplied the application was granted, and Somerset House will not now produce the original certificate except on a court order. For practical purposes it has been superseded. An official at Somerset House states that instances of a change in sex being legally recognised are not unknown, but it is rare that the application is deferred until a person is so old as 29. in Woman's Dress When interviewed in the cottage where he is still living with his parents, Mi’. Evan Burtt proved to be a tall, slender young person with shining black hair, Eton cropped, and brushed back over the ears. He was still dressed in woman's clothes and wore a long apr6n. But his voice is masculine, though his oval face has a feminine cast. He has since changed into man’s clothes for the first time, and now wears flannel trousers and a tweed jacket.

His friends in Tisbury have always thought him a girl. As a child he played with the other little girls of the village. It seems that everybody has liked him, and been unaware of his real sex. Feminine Charm He is reputed to have been always shy with men, but had many girl friends. “I would have said ‘she’ was a very feminine girl,” a neighbour asserts, “with a manner of great charm, but when a room was full of women it was odd to hear ‘her’ speaking in a husky, mannish voice.” “The girl, who is to be my wife,” says Mr. Burtt, "has known for about three years that I was really a man. “We have known each other all our lives, and before I decided to change from women’s clothes to men’s clothes I discussed it very thoroughly with her. She agreed that the step I was about to take was the right one. “I was registered as a girl, so 1 grew up as a girl, Dolls Were a Bore “I always wanted to be with the boys playing round about the village, and I found it very irksome to amuse myself with dolls. All the years I was growing up I felt this peculiar attraction toward boys’ games. “Very often, when only about 10 oils years of age, I would slip into the garden and put on boy’s clothes. I always wanted to wear trousers, and when I could I would, as I thought, masquerade about the village in boy’s clothing. "I carried on as a woman until I met Miss Edwards, who is to he my wife. To the outside world we were just two girl friends. “Then 1 wrote to the Salvation Army and explained my trouble. The Registrar-General decided to change my birth certificate. “But now I have lost my job, and I do not see much prospect of getting another. lam trained for domestic work, but I have no man’s trade of any kind. “I will try to get an attendant’s job somewhere. I will leave Tisbury when I get married.”