Circus Rider as Spy.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XL, Issue 13, 28 March 1908, Page 13

Circus Rider as Spy.

■WOMAN WHO SOLD ARMY SECRETS TO DE WET. Lily White rose, a circus rider, charged with drunkenness at Bradford last month, told the Bench an extraordinary life story. She was the daughter of an army officer, she said. She ran away from home while in her teens and joined Buffalo Bill’s show in Massachusetts. She became a erack shot and an expert rider under Colonel Cody’s tuition. Later she married an Austrian army officer. She followed him to South Africa, and managed during the war to secure some secret information respecting the movements of the British army. She went to the Boer general De Wet, sold him the information, and was engaged as a despatch runner. She wore military attire and passed as a man. Remorse for her treachery overcame her, and she deserted the Boers and joined the British army at Modder River disguised as a trooper. She went through several battles, she said, and earned special distinction by carrying a wounded soldier part of the way across the river on her horse. Afterwards she became ill with enteric fever, and in the hospital her sex was discovered. She then became a nurse, and later she returned home to resume her professional career. She was fined 27/, including eOsts, with the alternative of three weeks’ imprisonment.