HERITAGE
“Strange freak of a New Zealand girl” WORDS Wendy Riley
D
ressed in a black cutaway coat, dark afterwards, at her invitation, he accompanied trousers, and a white silk neckcloth, her” to her lodgings. The following morning, he and sporting a Billy-Cock hat over awoke alone to find his clothes had gone. His short hair, Henry James Muir stood before pitiful cries for help were heard by the landlady a London magistrate in 1889 dressed in the as she farewelled her children to school. clothes he had been arrested in. Smoothed Harriet had come up with a plan to join her face, tall and attractive, Muir looked very wealthy pastoralist father in Christchurch. much like a respectable young man. Dressed in Johnson’s clothes and with newly A month earlier, Muir presented himself cut hair, she headed for the docks to enquire for enlistment at St. George’s Army Barracks. about a job as a steward. Unsuccessful, He answered all questions satisfactorily, but Harriet proceeded to the barracks, where something odd in his behaviour roused the her plan quickly unravelled. She became Sergeant’s suspicions. When faced with a the object of curiosity and headlines as the medical examination, Muir confessed, he was “She Soldier” and “Strange Freak of a New not the person he appeared to be. Henry Muir Zealand Girl”. was a woman. The Magistrate bound Harriet over to the As a young child, Harriet’s father had left St James Workhouse, where she waited for her with friends in Scotland and sailed to New friends to finance her trip to her father in New Zealand to seek his fortune. At age 16, Harriet Zealand. When her lawyer successfully argued ran away and became an actress in Bristol. she had intended to return Johnson’s clothing, When the company folded, she made her way she was acquitted. to London and worked as an artist’s model. Harriet’s story may be as fanciful as the Late one night, while walking out in pantomimes she had acted in. It disappeared Westminster, she met a musician, George from the papers as quickly as it had appeared, Johnson. “They had refreshments, and, and she was not heard of again. lostchristchurch.wordpress.com
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