Transcribed by Ann Selchick. Geo. THE NORTHERN NEWS, OCTOBER 9, 1897. A WOMAN IN MALE ATTIRE ____ FORTY-TWO YEARS WITHOUT DISCOVERY. The London “Star” states that in the office of the woman’s ward of the West Ham Workhouse, in the presence of the master (Mr. D. W. MORGANS) and a nurse, Catherine COOMBES related the circumstances under which for forty-two years she lived, dressed and worked as a man. Catherine COOMBES - or Charles WILSON as she would rather be called - went to the West Ham Union on Saturday night with an order from the relieving officer at Canning Town (Mr. LEWIS) dressed in men’s clothes, neat, clean and respectable. She looked like a clerk or artisan, and went, of course, to the men’s ward. There she was received and ordered by the attendant to take a bath in the ordinary way together with two other applicants for relief. At first she began to undress, but then hesitated, and finally asked to see the matron and doctor. The master was sent for and the little out of work painter asked respectfully to be allowed to make a statement to him privately. He took her on one side, and then she made the simple but startling remark, “I am a woman.” The master thought at first he had to deal with a lunatic, but the painter went on quietly to state that her proper name was Catherine COOMBES, her age sixty-three years, and that she had worn men’s clothes for forty-two years without revealing her sex. The master at once sent for a matron and a nurse, who verified the strange story. They also discovered the remarkable fact that in July last Mrs. “Charley WILSON” fractured her ribs in falling from a scaffold at Surbiton, and was then attended by a Kingston doctor who failed to discover her sex. The matron’s report to the master led to the removal of Mrs. COOMBES to the women’s department, where she was given an outfit proper to her sex, an arrangement of blue print skirts, red shawl, and other things, which caused the owner no little trouble before she discovered the right way to don them. Subsequently she gave the following particulars of her career: - “I was born in Axbridge, in Somerset, in 1834, and received a very good education at the Cheltenham Ladies College. Unfortunately, I left school at sixteen, and MARRIED MY FIRST COUSIN, A man twenty-three years older than myself, to whose ill-treatment was later due my adoption of men’s clothes. I was then a school mistress, and had charge of the Cleve National School, but owing to my husband’s bad conduct towards the pupils I was compelled to leave. He ran away to London, and wrote to me to say he had a situation is Chelsea. When I reached London he pawned my clothes, and finally said we must walk to Cheltenham. We did it, and I remember those roads to this day. At home again he wished to live on my mother and myself, so I ran away to my brother at Hill Top, West Bromwich. He was a painter and a decorator, and helping him I learned the trade. But my husband followed me, and persuaded me to open a school at Hazenville. Again he ill-treated me, and I returned to Hill Top, but attending the funeral of a cousin I met him again, and he said he would never leave me. That decided the matter. I went to Birmingham again, took lodgings, bought a suit of boy’s clothes, and by taking lodgings at a coffee house on Snow Hill for my brother managed to make the change of clothes. I did my own up in a bundle and addressed them to my brother. Then I came to London, where I have worked ever since. I am a member of the painter’s union, and well-known as a good clean painter. Everyone knows Charley WILSON. I worked thirteen years for the Peninsular and Oriental Company, living for seven years with my niece at 7, Camden-terrace, Custom House. For twenty-two years she kept house for me. We lived as man and wife. Then two years ago she ran away suddenly. I believe she has a situation in St. Denis, France. I have been attended by half a dozen doctors, and they never discovered my secret. If I had money I would get out of here in my men’s clothes, and no one would detect me. At present I cannot work on account of my fractured ribs." ______