On a balmy Townsville night in 1944, a young serviceman, Warwick Meale, is found murdered. The army and police do not, or will not, conduct a proper investigation and history forgets the killer – until now. Nearly eighty years on, Warwick’s descendant Jonathan Butler dusts off the case and chases the leads that were there all along.
The Boy in the Dress exhumes secrets of life on the home front during World War II, where tensions between soldiers boiled over, new expressions of sexuality flourished and the threat of invasion catapulted the status quo into disarray. The truth of this family legend, and this little-known chapter in Australian military history, is more complex and engrossing than anyone could have imagined.
Butler’s deeply moving and gripping family memoir is a testament to his thorough research and dedication to uncovering the truth about his grandmother’s cousin, Warwick, a serviceman who was tragically murdered in Townsville in 1944. Butler knew fragments about Warwick’s life, sadly cut short at only twenty years old, from family photos and rumours. The photo of Warwick as a child wearing a dress proved instrumental to Butler’s own childhood in which he came to terms with his sexuality. The idea of Warwick having gone through something similar decades ago, caused an indelible link to form between the two men – and sparked Butler’s ten-year-long journey to research and write this fascinating family memoir.
The Boy in the Dress is the kind of non-fiction which at times reads like a gripping true crime novel, yet also delves into chapters about Butler’s experiences growing up queer in Tasmania, coming out to his family and dealing with his mother’s illness. He writes with honesty and poise in the face of confronting subject matter about the murder of his own relative Warwick. Butler uses primary and secondary sources, including photos, military and police records, alongside contemporary studies, to paint a vivid picture of how Warwick’s life may have unfolded – although it is not conclusive. Butler’s exploration of queerness in the armed forces, and the harassment and gay hate crimes that for so long went ignored and unreported, is also eye-opening.
Butler has passionately and eloquently told the story of Warwick, himself and his family in The Boy in the Dress, and it is abundantly evident how much it means for him to share this. The Boy in the Dress is an informative and compelling read for anyone interested in queer history, military history and beautifully told memoirs.
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