Mary Anne Arnold
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mary Anne Arnold (born c. 1825) was an English sailor and crossdresser.[1] She was born in Sheerness, Kent, England and worked aboard the naval ship, Robert Small until the captain of the ship discovered she was assigned female at birth.[2][3]
At age 10, Arnold's mother died. She thus performed physical labour to provide for herself, and her eight month old sister. Arnold first gained employment at a rope factory in Sheerness. Upon discovering that boys her age were making significantly more money as sailors, she began to crossdress and gained employment as a cabin boy in the Williams, a Sutterland collier.[4][5]