A FEMALE "HE..'

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 4 January 1917, Page 3

A FEMALE "HE..'

PRINTERDOM has furnished one of the strangest romances of the war. A master printer of Mill IJill, England, applied \q th.c lo'eal tribunal for exemption from service of one of his "hands," on the'grounds of indispensability. The application being disallowed, the conscript in due course appeared at the military depo£ for medical examination, when, to the cqnster.natfoyi of the authorities, "h.e" proved "to be a female. Strangest o,f all, she had been posing for some years as the husband of a young woman with one child, wh.icl} is. now known he ay illegitimate, offspring. Fond qf gardening, "his" spare time was spent in cultivating the patch attached to the house,- while. smoking a" pipe as to the manner bora. The reason for her remarkable conduct appears to have been a desire to avoid,-• Jiving with an unkind husband, :fr6m"'wnom sh.e ran away after a shop suejl 0/ married life. I^er emj>}Qy.er gave < her an excellent charaoter as a '• workman."