The Curious Case of Miss Schwich: A Victorian Girl in Boy’s Clothing
(© British Library Board)
In October of 1886, at the Marlborough Street Police Court in London, a young woman dressed in boy’s clothing was charged with stealing from her employer. Her name was Lois Schwich (sometimes spelled Schwick). She was twenty-one years old and had been wearing male attire since the age of seventeen. According to a 29 October 1886 report in the Herts & Cambs Reporter & Royston Crow:
“[Miss Schwich] had made every effort to obtain employment as a girl but had failed, and in desperation to support her starving mother, who had a young family, she assumed the garb of a boy, and succeeded in obtaining a situation.”
Overzealous Research Lands Cross-Dressing Victorian Writer in the Dock
Just before midnight on June 25, 1891, a police detective encountered two women strolling arm-in-arm down Regent Street. One of the women struck him as being rather odd in appearance. He approached to investigate, but when he attempted to raise the heavy black veil on the lady’s hat, she firmly knocked his hand away. It was then that the detective realized that the lady was, in fact, a very elderly gentleman in women’s clothes. He promptly arrested him.[…]Continue Reading
