Boulton and Park

rdf:langString Boulton and Park

rdf:langString left

rdf:langString right

rdf:langString Sir John Coleridge, the Solicitor General for England and Wales

rdf:langString Boulton, as Stella

rdf:langString Boulton, as a shepherdess

rdf:langString Boulton, in male attire, 1875

rdf:langString John Safford Fiske, c. 1863

rdf:langString Park and Boulton with Clinton, c. 1869

rdf:langString Park, as Fanny

rdf:langString Park, in male attire, 1868

rdf:langString Sir Robert Collier, the Attorney General for England and Wales

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rdf:langString Ernest Boulton, also known as Stella

rdf:langString Fanny and Stella

rdf:langString Frederick Park, also known as Fanny

rdf:langString Leaders of the prosecution team

rdf:langString Some of those investigated

rdf:langString Ernest Boulton with blonde hair .jpg

rdf:langString Fanny .jpg

rdf:langString Fanny, Stella and Lord Arthur Pelham-Clinton .jpg

rdf:langString Frederick "Fanny" Park .jpg

rdf:langString John Safford Fiske as a young man.jpg

rdf:langString Lord Coleridge LCJ by EU Eddis.JPG

rdf:langString Robert Porrett Collier2.jpg

rdf:langString Stella Boulton.jpg

rdf:langString Stella as a shepherdess.jpg

rdf:langString Thomas Ernest Boulton and Frederick William Park were two Victorian cross-dressers. In 1870, while in drag, they were arrested after leaving a London theatre. They were charged with conspiracy to commit sodomy, a crime that carried a maximum prison sentence of life with hard labour. Their case came to court the following year when they were acquitted after the prosecution failed to establish that they had anal sex. The pair admitted to appearing in public dressed as women, which was "an offence against public morals and common decency". They were bound over for two years. Boulton and Park were both from upper middle class families; both were homosexual; both enjoyed wearing women's clothes and both enjoyed taking part in theatrical performances—playing the women's roles when they did so. It is possible that they asked for money for sex, although there is some dispute over this. In the late 1860s they were joined on tour by Lord Arthur Clinton, the Liberal Party Member of Parliament for Newark. Also homosexual, he and Boulton entered into a relationship; Boulton called himself Clinton's wife, and had cards printed showing his name as Lady Arthur Clinton. Boulton and Park were indiscreet when they cross-dressed in public, and had come to the attention of the police. They had been under police surveillance for a year before they were arrested. When they appeared at Bow Street Magistrates' Court the morning after the arrest they were still dressed in the women's dresses from the previous evening; a crowd of several hundred people were there to see them. The two men were subjected to an intrusive physical examination from a police surgeon and held on remand for two months. Just before the case started Clinton may have died, possibly of scarlet fever, possibly a suicide; it is also possible his death was faked and he fled abroad. The case came before the Court of the Queen's Bench the following year, Boulton and Park with three other men. All five were found not guilty after the judge, Sir Alexander Cockburn, the Lord Chief Justice, was highly critical of the police investigation and the treatment of the men by the police surgeon. The case was reported in all the major newspapers, much of it in lurid terms. Several penny pamphlets were published focusing on the sensational aspect of the case. The events surrounding Boulton and Park make one of the key events in gay history. The arrest and trial been interpreted differently over time, from innocent Victorian sentimentalism to a wilful ignoring of the men's sexuality by the courts to ensure they were not convicted. Recent examinations have been from the perspective of transgender history. The case was a factor that led to the introduction of the 1885 Labouchere Amendment which made male homosexual acts punishable by up to two years' hard labour. Boulton and Park both continued performing on stage after the trial, and both worked for a while in the US. Park died in 1881, probably of syphilis; Boulton died in 1904 from a brain tumour.