WOMAN’S CAREER AS MAN

Taranaki Daily News, 8 March 1929, Page 9

WOMAN’S CAREER AS MAN

MASQUERADED FOR YEARS

MARRIED TO YOUNG WOMAN

TWO CHILDREN OF HER OWN

By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. Australian Press Association. United Service. London, March 7. The most startling revelation made during investigations into the career of “Captain Barker,” the woman who masqueraded as a man, is that she was “married” in November, 1923, at Saint Peter’s Church, Brighton, to Alfreds Emma Haward, aged

27, a daughter of a chemist at Little Hampton. The parish curate performed the ceremony, 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 only to-day that the person who married their daughter was really a woman. The mother says Barker courted her daughter as Sir Victor Barker for two years. He said he was a baronet and kept worrying Alfreds to marry. He seemed a fine manly fellow

and knew how to make love to a girl. Some members of the family opposed the match but the daughter’s heart 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. Inquiries reveal that Barker is Mrs, Valerie Smith, who married an Australian in the wartime. She is the mother of an 8-year-old girl and a 9-year-old

boy. She is the daughter of a Jervey man, her maiden name being Leelie Valerie Barker. She served with the V.A.D. in France and was a lorry driver. She started the masquerade over 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 the communal dressing room, drank beer and changed her clothes among the men. When her locker was opened it was found to contain dress

clothes, an eyebrow pencil, and a powder puff, which had obviously been used, also safety pins. There was a safety razor, but there was no evidence that it had been used. It appears that she carried on the masquerade in many towns in England, particularly Andover, where she played cricket and tennis and was often seen in the streets in flannels and a shirt with open neck. She often went shopping in plus fours.

The astonishing fact that Barker went through the ordeal of a trial at the Old Bailey for being in unauthorised possession of an automatic pistol and was acquitted, without a suspicion of her sex, has aroused several woman to say now they were suspicious and tried to trap Barker, but the "captain” always had a plausible explanation. The fact that she said 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 her with a child unprovided for. 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.