Meet Bill Edwards, transgender person and author of an exciting memoir. Bill is featured on the Extraordinary Lives part 2 tour, where you can also learn about other stories from Fawkner Memorial Park.
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Watch a video about Bill.
Download a transcript of Bill's story from the Discover Cemeteries app.Early years
Bill Edwards was born to Welsh parents John and Margaret in Murchison, Victoria.
Bill was their fourth child. As a teenager they decided they preferred living as a man to living as a woman. In 1896, after working as wait staff and a labourer, Bill confirmed their name as William Ernest Edwards and moved to Melbourne.
Personal life
In Melbourne, Bill married the manager of a small boarding house, widow Lucy Minihan.
In 1905, police arrested Bill for breaking into a hotel in the early hours of the morning. Lucy posted bail but Bill absconded to Brisbane where police arrested them again in 1906. The courts sent Lucy to gaol for Bill's disappearance and revoked bail.
When Bill returned to Melbourne the press outed their previous gender. But Bill enjoyed the celebrity and turned it to their advantage. Bill performed as a sharpshooter in exhibitions and as a ‘male impersonator’ in shows. Bill even appeared in the Bourke Street Wax Museum.
Recognition
Bill lived a fanciful life and wrote a salacious memoir in 1906. Bill titled it ‘The Life and Adventures of Marion Bill Edwards - the most Celebrated Man Woman of Modern Times’.
In the book Bill claimed to have done many exciting things. They had delivered horses to India and entertained troops in Africa in the Boer War. Neither claim appears to be true and there is no evidence to back up these stories.
Newspapers at the time suggest Bill ran sly grog but nothing was ever proven. Bill worked in hotels, factories and iron foundries, but liked to be around horses. Bill also worked at times as a pony trainer and a bookmaker.
Death
Bill continued to dress as a man until they needed care when they got older. Bill lived in the Mount Royal Geriatric Home but staff forced them to dress as a woman.
They buried Bill at Fawkner Memorial Park under the incorrect name Sarah Isobel.
Bill's story was the subject of the 1984 play ‘In Male Attire’.
Adapted from material supplied by historian Dr Jan Penney, GMCT Trust member 2010-2020.
Bibliography
Anon 1908, ‘Marion (“Bill”) Edwards’, Morwell Advertiser 10 January 1908, pp. 3-4. Viewed from Trove
Bauer, H. (ed.) 2006, Women and Cross Dressing: 1800-1939: a history of feminism, Routledge
Colligan, M. 2005, ‘Edwards, marion (Bill) (1874-1956)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian National University.
Edwards, M. 1906, The Life and Adventures of Marion Bill Edwards: the most celebrated man woman of modern times, W H Williams, Melbourne
Stulberg, L. 2017 LGBTQ Social Movements, John Wiley and Sons, Richmond.
Image source
Image taken from Trove.
