Petra Henderson

Petra Henderson (an English Transwoman who was born as Peter Henderson in 1955) was the first British Transsexual to be granted a full change of legal status, "for all purposes" (in 1999), by the UK Government, since the disastrous case of Corbett v Corbett (April Ashley) some thirty years before. She served in the Royal Corps of Signals. As an Engineer and Inventor, she was known world-wide, particularly for her work in computing and telecommunications. Knowing she was "a bit too well known" in her former male name and specialist skills to suddenly turn up with a totally new name, and thinking she would never be legally allowed to change her sex (based on the current state of UK law in the last century), she selected a female name "Petra" that was as close to her given male name "Peter" as possible.

== Some early signs "Something wrong with this child!" ==

Transsexual children often realise quite early that something is wrong, and this leads to two main approaches. One total openness and honesty, trying to convince everyone around you are what you say you are, or total secrecy, and stealth, trying (at times with excessive acting in the expected birth sex role) to overcompensate and hide any sign of the internal gender. Petra tried the first option and due to attitudes and knowledge of such issue (lack off) in the 1950s and 1960s, had a very hard time. Self injury, many suicide attempts, multiple rapes by a respected family friend at age of five, all took their toll. Child and later Military and civilian psychologist did not help and only delayed the inevitable. Here a selection of the earliest signs "Peter is female and wants to be a girl"

Severe complications at birth, resulting at the loss of her mother's ability to have further children, and some genital construction problems, led to delays in a decision as to which sex she was and registration. Also due to poor health post natal, Petra was given to her Grandmother in Belfast to be looked after until her mother recovered. On being presented to her Aunts as "Bridie's new Son" one aunt (a psychic who also later became famous on TV and radio) immediately said, "I don't care what anyone says, that is a girl!" Even after being shown the male equipment during nappy change, she said "that baby is a girl, look in her eyes, she has a female soul!"

At two (vague memory that was later confirmed to her by her father in 1995) she refused to stand on a box her father had made for her to learn to urinate standing up "like a boy" at the toilet, and wiggling free of the hold of her father, turned round to sit like a girl, where due to the raised seat she promptly fell in. (1957)

She clearly remembers at age of three telling her mother she wanted to be a girl and being hit so hard she "flew across the room". Due to memories of the room and that the address being demolished in December 1958, she knows this was between July 1957 and September 1958 probably in the summer when she had just turned three. (1958)

At four and half she commenced school and in the first year was allowed to be with the Girls. In the Second year she refused to line up with the boys and when explained that she was a boy and after arguing she was not being told her name was a boy's name "Peter" she turned around and said without any delay, "Then I am Caroline", (1959/60)

Before this name change, she had gone along with another class/girlfriend to the Brownies and was allowed to join with the new girls for about half an hour, until she honestly when asked her name, answered "Peter", where she was then sent home with a note.

For another honest answer, she got threw out of Sunday School / Church. Then when asked by the Catholic priest (Father Olive) "what she wanted to be when she grew up?", she replied "Like you!" He asked joyfully "A priest?", "No" she replied, "a Mama!" (Woman) referring to his lacy dress and the name Olive which she knew was a girl's (like Popeye's Girlfriend) name. The Priest lifted her by one ear and carried her to the door and ejected her with a sharp kick. (1959)

When shopping with her grandmother, she always pulled to the shoes, dresses and doll's houses and doll's, accepting excuses from the Grandmother that she had no money, but could still look. When trying the same with her mother, she was dragged away in tears to the boy's section of each store. (1959-63)

Every Christmas and Birthday she begged her father, Mother and in her letter's to Father Christmas, for a dress, a doll and a doll's house. When she got a gift wrapped Boy's pullover, on seeing the content would throw it to the floor and dance on it. Same for unwanted train set's and other boy's toys. She developed a life long depression in the weeks leading up to Christmas or her birthday, and was m ore likely to self harm or try killing herself around this time. The XMAS depression was cured by years later having her SRS a couple of days before Christmas, making this annual anniversary a positive event.

She would not allow anyone to cut her hair, and was soon banned by all the Barbers shops in the town. At an attempt by her father at home to cut her hair, she screaming so loud that neighbours called the Police. (1960) She would Pout with her hair and was the only boy in her class with long hair. When the Beatles came along and boys started growing their hair long she hated them (the Beatles) for it. (1963)

Known to most of the Children in her class as Caroline and ignoring an teacher's who called her Peter, she developed an excessive interest in radios when Radio Caroline was splashed all over the UK newspapers. (1964)

She wanted the then new to the market Barbie Doll, in fact any doll, and plagued her parents for months. Her Father determined not to allow this bought her a GI Joe Action Man figure from USAF staff living nearby, hoping a male doll would not raise further questions in the family and neighbourhood. She cut apart and modified the uniform into a dress "sewing" it together with an office stapler and using plumber's sealing hemp/hair from her father's toolbox to make long blond hair, and a red pen to colour his fingernails and so made GI Joe into "Mandy" (Christmas 1964)

Education

Transsexual children also fall into two main clusters of weighting in a demographic scatter grams, results look a bit like a dogs bone. Many are at the one end or the other, and very few in the middle. This means many are either "top of the class" or "bottom of the class". Some throw themselves into their school-work, and later into their jobs or hobbies, in order to distract themselves from thinking about wanting to the sex they feel they should be. Others cannot concentrate at all, and so even if very intelligent are poor students or achieve poor academic results, in later life some of these may turn to drink, drugs or other distracting "crutches" to help them suppress any thoughts about their desire or need to change sex.

Petra was always top of the class, but quickly worked out that being second or third would prevent her being called to the front of the school hall or class and called "Peter" by the teacher or Headmaster in front of the entire school.

She also deliberately sabotaged her 11 plus exam in 1965 to ensure she would not be sent to the local grammar school, then she was clear she did not want to ever go to an all boys school. When questioned (after a resit) why she was deliberately answering every question wrong, she old the review committee that she would only pass if they promised to let her go to the all-Girl's school. Naturally neither her parents or the teachers were willing to entertain this. So she went to a newly built Secondary Modern School in a mixed class and could continue to be herself.

Later she got a formal trade training at the Royal School of Signals and even later in her civilian life took a college degree and got a Diploma as Telecommunications and Electronic Engineer.

Early Interest in Radio and Electronics

She got into Electronics as a young child, having a keen personal interest in building or modifying triple superhet radios and complex aerial arrays. This was to be able to get the then (Easter 1964) newly started Radio Caroline a long way outside Caroline's normal (Irish Sea and northern England) broadcasting radius. The unusual interest in hearing this station was fuelled due to the name she was using since 1959 in primary school "Caroline". Joining the "Caroline Club" she got a Caroline "Identity bracelet" and regular "Dear Caroline member" letters where she delighted to read these as "Dear Caroline, club member!"

A few years later in the mid to late 1960s, while living in Ryde on the Isle of Wight, her uncle and aunt gave her a defective domestic long/medium and short wave wireless set considered by a local repairman to be unfixable "to play with!". She quickly got it working (and several electric shocks) and started buying for up to two shilling's each broken Bakelite or wooden cased radios to fix and sell. With the money from these she then bought surplus WW2 RAF, Navy and Army Wireless sets, Receivers, Transmitters or Back-Pack sets. She got involved with Pirate Radio broadcasting for several small stations on land and an "afloat (just about) station", where she worked (as everyone else) a few hours a week as transmitter engineer / DJ / News reader / ships cook / Bilge pump and bucket bailer. In one case her ambiguous looks and due to covering her hippy-look female clothing with an all in one nylon sailing suit for protection proving critical to helping the station owner escape detection and fined under the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949 revised 1967. Her acting as DJ under the name of Anne Kennedy and between the male DJ's shows as a "female" continuity and "news reader" with her then soft voice, on a small boat despite the fact she was not at that time actually female proved useful during a GPO/DoT instigated police search. When they were stopped while returning home from the vessel one time. The Police decided they were just "four men and a boy" and it was OK to send them on, because they were searching for a crew with at least one adult woman in it. Shocked at nearly being caught, and visions of being searched and found to be a male, made her turn her attention to legal transmission and studio work.

This lead to her first interest in legitimate Ham Radio and helping build the first Hospital Broadcasting studios in the area. She also made small tobacco tin transmitters and receivers with surplus army peanut valves and coils from scrap and repaired old Jumble sale bought defective wireless sets or ex-army radios, and fixed them up, to make enough money to finance her radio hobby and also purchase "girl things" her parents would not buy or give her money for. The interest in radio as a job and hobby continues today. She holds a CEPT T/R 61-01 Certificate and German Amateur Radio Licence for all bands.

Later in the army she continued to exchange correspondence with some DJs she knew, including one on and was warned by her CO that it did not go down well to get mail from Pirate ship staff considered to be illegal under UK law.

Today she runs several radio discussion groups for Ham Radio and Short Wave Listener enthusiast. Including for Trio Kenwood R-1000, Yeasu Munsen FRG-7, Trio 9R-59DE/DS/D and Kit Built Knight-kit R100A. Also for Military Radios such as the German SEM25 and SEM35, as well as the Military/CIA R-388 (Collins Radio 51J) receiver of the Herforder Association and active member of the Royal Signals Organisation. She still to this day tries to help current and former members of the Royal Signals and associated Regiments with various issues and support. In 2003 an article about her with headline "Sex-Swap Soldier Speaks out" appeared on page three of the British Army's daily newspaper ("Sixth Sense" 20th November 2003) as a supporting report to the article on the same page "Transsexual Loses Case" about Joanne Wingate, a REME RSM and one of the first soldiers to transition while still in the army, who had just lost her case against the British MOD (Ministry of Defence) for discrimination.

In the Interview she gave, Petra said (an Extract) '“ that she is hoping the introduction of a new law at the end of the year will give transsexual people like Joanne Wingate more rights to equal treatment. “The Gender Recognition Bill has taken over five years of very difficult and careful consideration to be put together. This will allow other transsexual people to have the same rights as me - they will be able to have a new birth certificate showing their new gender and can remarry in a civil ceremony,” said Petra. "Had Joanne had that piece of paper I think the result would have been very different. Her gender would have been legally recognised." and “This is definitely a step backwards for transsexual people. But I hope she does appeal against the decision made in order that the Army accepts that this kind of discrimination will not be tolerated.”

First Gender Recognition Certificate

The full recognition of her gender was granted in July 1999, some five years before the the Gender Recognition Act 2004 became law, and only after the special intervention of the Lord Chancellor. Although the British Government claimed she was a special "one-off" exemption, her case and several others she got similar concessions for, one also still married like her, disproved their "one off" claim. These Identical "one off's" helped prove a repeatable and workable system that could be applied to any Transsexual person, and thus helped steer the way towards the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and enabled the creation and issue of GRCs (Gender Recognition Certificates) and the issue new Birth Certificates for other Trans-people born in the UK too.

Due to the nature of her previous work for the UK Government, she was asked to "try to keep out of the UK press as much as possible" Because she disliked how the press misused transsexual people to increase their circulation figures, and based on a narrow escape of her own with German journalist a year earlier, she more than gladly agreed to do so. She did however willingly risk the loss of this special concession, by supplying copies of the document and background information (and support for the generation of Amicus curiae) to help the ongoing cases of other TS still fighting the system including April Ashley in the long fight for April's pensionable age rights, and to the legal teams of several others and PFC where some members (until second and third cases could be proven) were less than enthusiastic about the usefulness of this "one-off".

As a side-effect of this "one-off", the authority for all future problems and decisions about transsexual cases in the UK, were suddenly transferred to the by the Home Office in a fit of disgust, because up to then they had been responsible and rigorously fought against granting any recognition for UK born transsexual citizens and ex-pats, even long after being warned or even clearly ruled against in cases brought before the European Court of Justice or European Court of Human Rights.

Her certificate recognising her new Name, Identity and Gender also allowed her to remain married to her female partner of some 26 years of marriage, and so became by default the first Government sanctioned same sex marriage at the same time. She was warned however, that should she ever divorce her wife, then change their minds (even just a minute after the decree) they could never remarry, then although the previous marriage stood, any new one could only be to a man.

The German authorities were somewhat upset at this unexpected same sex marriage, as their rules, software and forms for the tax and residential records system was not designed to accept two females. They made attempts to deny the existence of this special relationship, so much so that in the year 2000 the Lord Chancellor was asked for reconfirmation, and especially to verify that he was aware Petra was married before the Lord Chancellor made his original decision. He confirmed this and she was given a document by the British Consulate General in Germany to confirm her change of sex and recognise her new gender "for all purposes" AND her ongoing marriage to a woman.

Attempts by her, Stephen Whittle and others in the UK's Press for Change to ensure other married transsexual people would get these same rights, (and not have to chose between their civil right to change gender or their marriage and family), failed despite the evidence that the UK already planned legislation for same sex marriages shortly after the new act would become law.

Petra permanently transitioned in 1998 and eventually had her "Sex-change" at the Marcus Hospital, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. After her SRS she eventually divorced her wife and moved with her son to Central Germany in the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region. Like many other trans-women, she has long been declared dead (by her father) and since divorced (after the wife found another partner) and lost all contact to her former wife. After several years of apparent understanding and support, she has also now (in July 2008) lost contact to her son.

Civilian career

At first staying in Germany on leaving the forces in early 1976, she worked on many different jobs, including long distance truck driving, as a crane operator, a fork-lift driver, welder, electrical installer, in fact anything to have a job. She got a job for a Planning and Engineering company, on the construction of new microwave linked chain of BFBS TV transmitters and studios where she also met Marconi Engineers who eventually (due to glowing reports) got her to return to the UK for GEC-Marconi. She also worked for the German Bundespost (Forerunner of Deutsche Telekom) on the first experimental large area cable TV distribution networks, head ends and some VHF and UHF TV transmitters.

Due to her involvement in a German Bundespost/AEG/Telefunken planned Satellite TV distribution system and German CATV networks, as well as glowing reports of her technical and language skills from Marconi staff that had now returned to the UK, she received an unexpected phone call from a senior GEC manager asking her if she would consider returning to the UK to work on an Anglo-German project. Although recruited for this civilian aerospace project, it never developed. Instead she was quickly asked to work on various defence products for and with "certain UK employers" including Marconi Space and Defence Systems Ltd., on specialised defence developments and systems from undersea to satellite systems.

In her later non-Defence jobs she worked as a development engineer on Commercial Telecommunication Satellites and ground stations, on conventional TV and Radio Broadcast Systems and Studio Construction, Radio and TV Transmission equipment and network planning as well as the engineering-development and planning major parts of the new Deutsche Telekom Project "OPAL". As OPAL project manager she was responsible for the development of FITL fibre optic Telephone and Cable TV equipment and design of several networks in many former East German towns and cities. She also undertook similar projects in Spain, Sweden, and a few other international locations for US, Swedish and German companies she worked for. She has been involved in several other less spectacular projects worldwide. She became a consultant working for one of Germany's best respected telecommunication and security consultancies and settled down in Frankfurt am Main, Germany where she currently still works.

Strange Twist and Rumours

Many of her friends and former colleagues believed she moved to Germany and changed sex to avoid the fate (Mysterious deaths of GEC-Marconi scientists) of several of her colleagues whom she worked with in GEC, Marconi and BAe. But seeing that she was already totally open about her planned change of gender and Security cleared even in 1979 to 1986 when she worked for such employers, this seems unlikely. Others rumoured she only got her "magic" change of status because of her connections to the Government or her former work.

Her transition with new a female name so similar to her former male one, and well documented prior transsexual history, together with the fact she had openly (even in Primary school) declared that she was a female, discount the first rumour.

Ironically long after winning her new Gender based on her being a transsexual, she was found to also be intersexual and having not only additional internal female organs discovered during a medical emergency and discovery that a massive tumour intra-abdominal was in fact mostly placenta caused by a disastrous . A few years earlier during another emergency surgery for a double twisted intestine between her two belly buttons (where it could not unfold naturally as it would in normal people), x-rays revealed she had a female skeleton.

It appears her ovaries became active after the failure and removal of the male gonads as part of the Sex reassignment surgery and today they make enough normal female hormones to eliminate any need for external hormones/medication. Had her intersexuality been known immediately after she got her first Certificate as a transsexual, the Government may have used it to fight off her and the PFC's arguments for the need for the GRA.

She did manage to keep out of the UK national press (as requested at the time of her secret concession) but later was asked in 2003 in light of the proposed Gender Recognition Act, and also the lost case of Joanne Wingate above, to make an interview in a British Army Daily Newspaper (which is based on the Daily Mirror style and layout). Ironically she appeared on Page three of the Force's newspaper, a page known in the UK for more risky pictures of , so she can jokingly say and without lying "that she was once a British force's page three girl!"

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