The Follies of War: Cross-Dressing and Popular Theatre on the British Front Lines, 1914-18

Social Drama Queens

Pity the drag queens who perform for unreceptive audiences. Two cases from World War I are worth recalling from the pages of the London tabloid The News of the World; both illustrate the gender disruption associated with modern warfare. The popular weekly newspaper took note of some "strange antics" occurring in June 1918. Victor Wilson, who, as the headline announced, "IN FEMALE ATTIRE / MASQUERADED AS GIRL TO HAVE FUN WITH SOLDIERS," created enough of a sensation to merit a short report in the paper, but his local impact in the Edinburgh area must have been even more sensational. Wilson went looking for love in all the wrong places. But on one particular outing, he was oblivious to the fact that while a soldier on his own might have been susceptible to a pick-up, propositioning two or more soldiers in a group would almost certainly invite a homophobic response. Here is the report in full:

The strange antics of Victor Wilson, a Dundalk Labour Exchange official, who is alleged to have been in the habit of masquerading as a young woman, with the object of having fun with soldiers, resulted in his appearance yesterday before the local magistrates. Although the accused was dressed in ladies' garments, and wore a hat and veil, and attempted to attract the khaki-clad lads, 3 of thelatter deposed that, becoming suspicious, they informed the local constabulary. P[olice] C[onstable] Quinn then assumed military uniform, and going to Castletown Railway Bridge, kept the defendant under observation, eventually entering into conversation with the supposed "lady" who, becoming uneasy at the turn of events, tried to bolt. Quinn blew his whistle, and the 3 soldiers aided him in arresting Wilson, who was alleged to have offered 5 s[hillings] to let him off. After other evidence the accused was returned for trial at Louth Assizes, bail being allowed. ¹

Wilson's entrapment by the police and military gives some indication of the anxiety about transgressive male sex/gender identity and behavior which the pressures of war might exert on secure notions of masculinist and patriarchal culture. His transvestite forays into cross-class homosexual encounters ended in his apprehension and exposure at the hands of the authorities and the objects of his desire, working-class soldiers in uniform. Such would have been the fate of many men whose outlaw desires were stimulated by the enticing spectacle of massed male, uniformed flesh during the Great War.

Wilson's masquerade was, however, not as wholly dysphoric as another case trumpeted in the tabloid approximately two weeks later (18 June 1918). Readers were treated to the pitiful spectacle of "THE EFFEMINATE SOLDIER / DESERTER WHO LOVES TO WEAR BEAUTIFUL DRESSES." Without implicating Frederick Wright as a homosexual, The News of the World informed its titillated readers that he appeared in court in women's attire at Highgate, London and was charged, on remand,

as an idle and disorderly person found in female attire, and further with being an absentee from the Royal Fusiliers. [The] Accused, after first denying that he was a man, admitted that he had masqueraded under the name of Kathleen Woodhouse and had adopted the disguise to escape from the Army. He said that he disliked soldiers and soldiering; in fact, everything manly. He added that he wished he had been born a woman, as he loved wearing beautiful dresses. ²

The News of the World reported that this spectacular case of gender dysphoria had previously attempted suicide, been rejected by his family "because of his effeminate ways," and was remanded "to await an escort" back to his regiment. The judge gruffly remarked, according to the report, "that he did not suppose he would be of much use in the Army. In the meantime the police might put him into proper garb. 'I should not send him to...