ROBERTA COWELL
Roberta Cowell was a British racing driver and a Second World War fighter pilot. She was also the first British woman to undergo sex reassignment surgery.
Roberta Cowell was the first ever known British transgender woman to undergo sex reassignment surgery. She also led a very exciting life being a WW2 fighter pilot and was passionate about race car driving.
.jpg)
On the 28th December 1940, Roberta Cowell was commissioned into the Royal Army Service Corps as a Second lieutenant. In June a year later, she married Diana Margaret Zelma Carpenter. Cowell served in Iceland, before transferring from the Army to the RAF on January 24th 1942. She served front line with a Spitfire squadron.
On the 18th of November 1944, Cowell was piloting a Typhoon in Germany. Cowell attacked targets on the ground, but her engine and wing were damaged by German anti-aircraft fire. She was flying too low to escape, so she jettisoned the cockpit canopy and attempted a crash landing. She was caught and captured by German Troops, and made to attempts to escape which were unsuccessful. She was taken into Germany and spent weeks in solitary confinement in an interrogation center and then was moved to a Prisoner Of War camp. She remained a prisoner for five months and taught engineering to her fellow inmates.
By April 1945, news spread that the advancing Red Army were approaching. German intention was to have the camp evacuated, but the inmates refused. The Germans abandoned the camp and fled West. The camp was left unguarded until the Red Army reached it on the 30th of April, and they were flown back to the United Kingdom.
_.jpg)
After demobilization, In 1946, she founded a Motor Racing Team and competed in events across Europe.
However, in her autobiography, Roberta describes how this was a time of unhappiness. She was suffering with flashbacks to her time in the war, and was suffering for depression after splitting with her wife. After sessions with a therapist, she began to discover her gender and sexuality.
By 1950, Cowell was taking oestrogen. Michael Dillon later performed a inguinal orchiectomy on her. The procedure was very secretive as this kind of medical operation was illegal at the time. Roberta was then able to go on to obtain a new birth certificate/ She went on to have a vaginoplasty performed on her by Sir Harold Gillies in1951. The name on her birth certificate was changed later that year.
By 1954, she was unable to continue with Grand Prix Motor Racing as her legal change of gender prevented her from doing so.
However, in 1954, the news of her gender reassignment surgery was released to the public and gained interest, earning her media coverage and a biography.
Roberta Cowell paved the way for so many young transgender men and women who came after her. She defied the stereotypes and is now a recognised LGBTQ+ icon.
