Cross-Dressed to Kill – Vivien Morgan
Our May ‘25 meeting featured a very interesting talk by Vivien Morgan based on her book Cross-Dressed to Kill (2020), describing women (from 17th-20th century) who went to war disguised as men.
Her research for the book began in pre-internet days with visits to The British Library and archives in Washington D.C. She worked from original sources in different languages including French and German. Diaries and newspaper accounts were consulted. Lockdown provided the opportunity to get the book completed after several years of research.
After giving the background to her research Vivien gave us several examples with interesting back stories including the women’s motivations for going to war. The British, Irish and American women were mainly young, answering the call of their monarch or leader to volunteer. The American Civil War had at least 750 women soldiers obliged by army regulations to fight in disguise. Their sex was generally not discovered because there were no proper medicals. Sometimes they could slip in more easily as volunteers where there was less scrutiny of recruits. Their reasons for going to war were varied but included patriotic fervour, the desire for adventure, to escape domestic drudgery or unhappy marriages, to trace husbands/lovers who had disappeared to war or been recruited or press -ganged into fighting. Sometimes it was to escape poverty and earn a steady wage. There were few opportunities for women to work in those days.
Some of the women were lesbians or transexuals. Men’s attitudes to women taking part in war tended to be negative so, they were obliged to disguise themselves to satisfy their desire to go to war. Sometimes they assumed masculine dress (loose clothing, baggy trousers) and styles of walking, with masculine hairstyles and sometimes false moustaches or beards. They might even flirt like a man – they knew all about that from having been on the receiving end as women! On occasions they got into awkward relationship situations with wives/engagements under their assumed gender.
Vivien gave us numerous examples with descriptive anecdotes and visual portraits to illustrate how the women looked and dressed. Deborah Sampson (1760-1827 alias Robert Shirtliffe) fought in the American War of Independence) and is known as first US woman soldier by the army. She was discharged from the army in 1793 for being a woman. Irish Margaret Bulkley (1790-1865) , alias Dr James Barry, was the first woman to qualify as an army doctor. She cross-dressed to attend medical school, a profession then barred to women, worked in S. Africa and was buried in London and later (in the 60’s) was found to have been a woman! Some worked on pirate ships (e.g. Anne Bonny 1697-1782) fought on pirate ships in the Caribbean, was flogged and narrowly escaped hanging when discovered, by claiming she was pregnant. Hannah Snell (English,1723-92) alias James Gray, served as a soldier and marine in E. Indies and aged 27 gave up fighting after enduring combat and flogging, with her female identity still undiscovered. Mijunka Saric , a Serbian(1892-1973) was honoured with medals including the Croix de Guerre. Some of the women’s exploits reached the popular broadsheets of the day, giving them some recognition.
Our thanks to Vivien for a fascinating introduction to these brave and resourceful women. I am sure some members will go on to read more about them in her lavishly illustrated book- see details below. This book would also make an unusual and interesting gift.
Morgan, Vivien. Cross-Dressed to Kill
Vivien Morgan, £13.34 pbk or on Kindle £9.35, 2020, p.208
Lois Coulthart