A young female, from the neighbourhood of Warrington, last week applied to a Recruiting Serjeant in Chester and voluntarily offered herself to serve his Majesty : – Being habited in male attire, suspicion slept, and the corporal eagerly cross’d her palm with the royal profile, set in silver; – being initiated – a barber was sent for, and her head of hair (which was beautiful) was soon mow’d down to a crop militaire. – After kissing the lips of a few tankards, the purchase of a part of her enlisting money (for the poor creature could not drink) the melancholy moment came for her departure to bed; when she was told, that she must sleep with two of her comrades! – to hesitate would have begot inquiry; she, therefore, marched up stairs with an assumed chearfulness [sic], and a heavy heart; after being at rest a very short period, a person in the kitchen, possessed of more discernment than his neighbours, expressed his suspicion of her sex; -when it was determined to order her out of bed, which was no sooner done, than the young heroine, bursting into a flood of tears, made a full confession of her error, acknowledging that the rashness of the deed was in consequence of the seductive blandishments of a “gentleman soldier”, who had very honourably plundered her of an innocent and unsuspecting heart.
Derby Mercury, 2 April 1792
Supercilious and condescending story of transvestism in the army – of course, it all hinges on the foolishness of the heart-broken and misguided girl…
Found in the British Newspaper Archive