60 Years A Transvestite

by Barbara --England

(Notes from the case history of a heterosexual transvestist orgin- ally prepared in 1931 for the late Dr. Havelock Ellis and Dr. Nor- man Haire, with additional notes in 1947, 1958 and 1961.)

My name is "S" (in private life Barbara). I am a journalist and author and was, in 1931, aged 47. I am a man of considerable energies and width of interest. I have edited and written tech- nical and historical works on a considerable scale including such subjects as physical science, electricity, wireless, prehistory, history of medicine, etc. My "History of Medicine and Hygiene" published in this country and U. S. A. as "Sixty Centuries of Health and Physic" was well received by the medical profession. am a fair handicraftsman, a keen walker and a motorist and have various other hobbies.

I

I was of a dominant driving character, at home, in local affairs and in my editorial office. These particulars are given, not in a boasting spirit but to rebut, as usual, the obvious charge of effeminancy.

I have a very early memory of being in the bedroom with my mother and father and seeing them with laughter dressing up in each other's clothes. A picture that stands out is of my father clasping on my mother's corsets. This and other fragments of mem-

ory indicate an early and fixed interest in female undies.

This interest in girl's clothes, especially underclothes, early became a desire. When about 11, I was staying in my grand- mother's house in Wales. She was a small lady and when I found in the bedroom some of her white starched embroidered under clothes-- combinations, drawers, petticoats (I can't remember corsets)--I put them on before dressing in the morning. One morning grandmother caught me in a black satin dress over these underclothes. My ex- cuse that I had my own clothes underneath (not true, of course) seemed to satisfy her.

Later, when rare opportunities offered, such as home charades and plays where I was cast for a girl's part, if at all possible,

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