The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes: Zoë Playdon (1967)
Zoë Playdon, author of The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes
This week we uncover a fascinating legal case that had major implications for transgender rights in the U.K., but that has been hidden for the last fifty years.
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Ewan Forbes was born in 1912 into an aristocratic Scottish family. He grew up in Aberdeenshire, studied medicine, started practising as a doctor in his local community and married.
Ewan’s patients and neighbours were aware that Ewan had been christened Elisabeth, but that, apart from a few exceptions, Ewan had been viewed as a boy by himself and others since he was a child. Many were also aware that in 1952, aged 40, Ewan had successfully, and with little commotion, corrected the sex on his birth certificate from “female” to “male”.
In this episode we hear the story of what happened to Ewan some fifteen years later, when his older brother died and the question of who was the rightful heir of the family’s baronetcy sparked a legal battle which was to be of huge significance to the history of LGBTI rights.
We also visit London where another catastrophe, similar to Ewan’s case, was brewing. The trans model and actress April Ashley had gone through a ceremony of marriage with the Honourable Arthur Corbett, son and heir of Lord Rowallen. The relationship hadn’t worked and April had sued Arthur for maintenance. As Ewan entered court, Arthur responded to April by filing a petition for divorce. Although Ewan and April didn’t know it, on that day they were linked in a domino effect that would damage trans experience world-wide.
Our guest today is the academic Zoe Playdon. Zoë is the Emeritus Professor of Medical Humanities at the University of London. She holds five degrees, including two doctorates. For over thirty years Zoë has worked pro bono in the front lines of LGBTI human rights. She is a former co-Chair of the Gay and Lesbian Association of Doctors and Dentists, and in 1994 she co-founded the Parliamentary Forum on Gender Identity with Dr Lynne Jones MP. Her book The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes has been described by Baroness Helena Kennedy QC as “A landmark work of history, law and social change.
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Click here to order Zoë Playdon's book from John Sandoe’s who, we are delighted to say, are supplying books for the podcast.
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Show Notes
Scene One: 5 January 1967. Ewan reads the report of the medical examination he has been forced to agree to by John’s experts as a quid pro quo for having the trial heard in camera. It says ‘examination indicates that Dr Forbes-Sempill is a female’.
Scene Two: 15 May 1967. Ewan’s trial commences; Arthur Corbett files for divorce from April Ashley.
Scene Three: 29 December 1967. The Judge’s decision. Exactly two years after his brother’s death Ewan received the judge’s decision, that he was not female but ‘a true hermaphrodite in whom male characteristics predominate’.
Memento: Ewan’s diaries.
People/Social
Presenter: Artemis Irvine
Guest: Zoë Playdon
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
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About Zoë Playdon
Zoë is the Emeritus Professor of Medical Humanities at the University of London. She holds five degrees, including two doctorates. For over thirty years Zoë has worked pro bono in the front lines of LGBTI human rights. She is a former co-Chair of the Gay and Lesbian Association of Doctors and Dentists, and in 1994 she co-founded the Parliamentary Forum on Gender Identity with Dr Lynne Jones MP.
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