{"id":397,"date":"2021-02-15T09:01:13","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T09:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/kaleidoscope\/?p=397"},"modified":"2021-02-15T08:02:43","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T08:02:43","slug":"lgbt-history-month-15-28-roberta-cowell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/kaleidoscope\/2021\/02\/15\/lgbt-history-month-15-28-roberta-cowell\/","title":{"rendered":"LGBT+ History Month 15\/28: Roberta Cowell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Week 3 of LGBTQ+ History Month begins and with it the ever-growing list of our Queeroes.<\/p>\n

So far, we\u2019ve discovered activists, pacifists, and educationalists.\u00a0 We\u2019ve seen refugees become saviours.\u00a0 Literary greats become write offs.\u00a0 We\u2019ve even seen war heroes labelled criminals.\u00a0 Each one has been through some of the toughest experiences imaginable and in the face of adversity overcome to the resistance and pave the way forward for fellow LGBTQ+ individuals to have a safer world to live in.<\/p>\n

Todays issue of the Queeroes series will look at one of the most significant individuals in trans British culture. \u00a0WWII Spitfire pilot, record breaking race car driver and first legally recognised transgender woman in the UK, Roberta Cowell.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Roberta Elizabeth Marshall Cowell was born Croydon, London on the 08th April 1989 as Robert Marshall Cowell.\u00a0 Her father, Ernest Cowell KBE CB, was a surgeon, both in hospitals and as part of the two world wars, and lecturer in human anatomy, while her mother was a social worker.\u00a0 It was a strict, religious household where gender roles were set in stone.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cowell would attend an all-male public school, an experience she did not find enjoyable.\u00a0 Roberta was bullied and became uncomfortable around the other boys in the communal baths.\u00a0 It was also during this time that her interest in motor vehicles would flourish.\u00a0 She would join the school\u2019s motor group and would save up her lunch money to buy car parts.\u00a0 As she grew older, her interests would intensify, and she was determined to have a career in motorsports.<\/p>\n

Upon passing her test, Cowell would compete in racing competitions and fall in love with the cheering crowds and the power that came from the cars she drove.\u00a0 She attended University College London (UCL) in 1936 and studied engineering where she would also compete in speed racing events.\u00a0 During this time, Cowell would meet future wife, Diane Carpenter.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

At 20 years of age, Cowell owned 3 sports cars and was racing every weekend.\u00a0 She was also a prolific dater, going from woman to woman in search of the next exhilarating experience.\u00a0 It was clear to see that Cowell was an adrenaline junkie and was seeking more and more thrills.<\/p>\n

In 1939, WWII had begun, and the following year, having already received a private pilots license, Cowell would enlist with the RAF.\u00a0 The experience was similar to her earlier years at school and was somewhat familiar.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

During a posting in Cambridge, Cowell married fellow racing driver and UCL engineering student Diana Margaret Zelma Carpenter.\u00a0 Carpenter herself was a trailblazer as she became the first woman to graduate with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from UCL.\u00a0 By 1942 their daughter Anne was born and in 1944 came Diana.\u00a0 \"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

That same year, Cowell would be captured by German troops and became a prisoner of war.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was put in a tiny cell containing a plank bed and a very small, thin blanket.\u00a0 I spent three weeks in solitary confinement.\u00a0 It was absolute hell\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Following solitary confinement, Cowell was transferred to the Stalag Luft I prisoner of war camp (POWC). \u00a0Throughout the ordeal, she would teach fellow prisoners in mechanical engineering.\u00a0 She would recall the starvation most during her experience and how other prisoners would describe meals they longed to have once more.\u00a0 As malnutrition set in, Cowell and the others were left with no choice and would eat the camp cats, raw.\u00a0 But this wasn\u2019t the only experience that would have a negative impact on her.<\/p>\n

As with many POWCs, there was a theatre group.\u00a0 These groups were used as a means of entertainment and light relief.\u00a0 Prisoners would put on comedy sketches, play music and produce theatre shows.\u00a0 In one instance, Cowell was asked to play the role of a woman and would refuse without hesitation;<\/p>\n

\u201cAccepting the role and letting my hair grow so that I would make a realistic appearance on stage would have been a public declaration of homosexual\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1945, the camp was liberated, and Cowell would return home.\u00a0 Now back in the UK and in the safety of her own home, the first thing she would do is take a bath.\u00a0 The experience had left her longing to be clean, to burn away the entire ordeal.\u00a0 She would look in the mirror and see that her body was ravaged from a 3.5 stone weight loss and scabies.\u00a0 The physical and mental impact left Cowell no choice and she would go back to motorsports.\u00a0 Despite her attempts to recover and regain control of her body and mind, she was depressed and would seek professional help.<\/p>\n

The years passed and Cowell was still unhappy.\u00a0 There was something, she thought, that was just not right, but what?\u00a0 Cowell left her family, disowning her daughters and finalised her divorce from Diana in 1952.\u00a0 During all this, Cowell began seeking advice and support from sexologists.\u00a0 In time she would come to discover that, though physically male, internally she was female;<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough I was tremendously upset and embarrassed when I realised this, it explains a a great deal about my nature and character that had always been a puzzle\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

She began taking doses of oestrogen, a drug which was still in its infancy regards medical studies and could have caused more harm than good.\u00a0 With that in mind, Roberta persevered for the benefits far outweighed the losses.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cowell came across Self: A Study in Ethics and Endocrinology<\/em>, a book written in 1946 by British medical student, and the first female to male trans to undergo phalloplasty (penis construction), Michael Dillon.\u00a0 Upon finishing the book, she would write to him and talk about her experiences and the process of trans surgery.\u00a0 They would go on to meet, discuss everything gender, become friends and would later begin a relationship.<\/p>\n

As the relationship grew, and love blossomed, Michael would seek to marry Roberta.\u00a0 At the time however, Roberta was still seen as male and as we know same-sex marriage was not legalised in the UK until 2013.\u00a0 In order to marry, Roberta would need to change her sex, legally.\u00a0 But as we learnt from Stephen Whittle<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, this would not be possible until 2005, so Roberta had to play the cis-tem\u2026 We do love a pun.<\/p>\n

Under the Mayhem Law, a common law in the UK which was defined as an act of disabling or disfiguring an otherwise healthy male by castration, no one was willing to perform the surgery for fear of losing their medical license or imprisonment.\u00a0 Dillon came forward and would successfully complete the operation while in his fifth year of medical school.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Post-surgery, Roberta would visit a doctor in Harley Street and seek a signed note confirming she was intersex and allow her to change her gender legally.\u00a0 The note was signed, and her life was coming together.<\/p>\n

In 1951, Roberta would meet with Dr Harold Gillies, the father of modern plastic surgery.\u00a0 Though he had never performed the operation before, practicing the night before on a cadaver, it was a success and he would join many others as a pioneer in gender reassignment surgery.<\/p>\n

On the 17th<\/sup> May 1951, Roberta was officially and legally a female.\u00a0 Even her birth certificate is amended to show she was always female.\u00a0 Sadly, Roberta would end her relationship with Michael Dillion and cut ties.<\/p>\n

Now a woman in the eyes of the world, Roberta\u2019s Grand Prix dreams came to an end.\u00a0 Though she would race for fun, she was excluded from championship events.\u00a0 She started numerous business ventures, though many would falter.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

She moved in with a close friend, and assumed lover, Lisa Morell, who she met during her time with depression.\u00a0 The two would home 30 cats together, in what I\u2019m assuming was her way of compensating her actions back in the war camp.\u00a0 They were together for 30 years before Lisa\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

By 1954, Roberta was in need of money.\u00a0 The hormones and the lavish lifestyles she enjoyed came at a cost.\u00a0 With no money from former motorsport winnings coming in, and her businesses collapsing around her, the world would come to know Roberta Cowell by face and name after selling her story to Picture Post magazine for a sum which was equivalent to \u00a3224,000 today!\u00a0 Her biography, Roberta Cowell\u2019s Story<\/em>, was dedicated to Lisa and would bring her even more fortune to the tune of \u00a342,000 in today\u2019s money.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Roberta Cowell died aged 93, alone.\u00a0 She would hear from her daughter, Diana, but would not respond.<\/p>\n

Roberta was a complicated woman, but one I think we must sympathise for.\u00a0 She was homophobic and sometimes trans phobic.\u00a0 Her actions towards her wife and daughters could be considered heartless and unthinkable.\u00a0 But we must remind ourselves that, at the time, these were \u2018normal\u2019 practices and LGBTQ+ people were not offered the civil liberties they are today.\u00a0 That kind of behaviour can take a lot of unlearning to change, even for a fellow member of the community.<\/p>\n

Roberta's brave decision to change her life for her own betterment, and to let the world in on her most intimate of stories, whatever her reason, is truly remarkable.\u00a0 She brought trans issues to the forefront and sparked a wider conversation about gender in society.\u00a0 She pioneered the way forward for gender reassignment and gender recognition in the UK and this is her legacy and is why we bestow the title of Queero to miss Roberta E. M. Cowell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Week 3 of LGBTQ+ History Month begins and with it the ever-growing list of our Queeroes. So far, we\u2019ve discovered activists, pacifists, and educationalists.\u00a0 We\u2019ve seen refugees become saviours.\u00a0 Literary greats become write offs.\u00a0 We\u2019ve even seen war heroes labelled...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1549,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,19],"tags":[40,51,46,45,39,96,47,38,35,36,37,50,42,48,43,30,44,95,52,11,83,41,49],"class_list":["post-397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-28-days-of-queeros-queer-heros","category-lgbt-history","tag-bisexual","tag-body","tag-diversity","tag-equality","tag-gay","tag-gender-reassignment","tag-inclusion","tag-lesbian","tag-lgbtplushistorymonth","tag-lgbtq","tag-lgbtqia","tag-mind","tag-nonbinary","tag-pride","tag-queer","tag-queeroes","tag-questioning","tag-roberta-cowell","tag-spirit","tag-trans","tag-trans-rights","tag-transgender","tag-wellbeing"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd4Pwk-6p","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/kaleidoscope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/kaleidoscope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/kaleidoscope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/kaleidoscope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1549"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/kaleidoscope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/kaleidoscope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/kaleidoscope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/kaleidoscope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/kaleidoscope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}