In the town of Lens, Pas-de-Calais in northern France, in 1929, the parish priest noticed that one of the members of his girls’ choir, age 16, had a thin mustache, a mannish voice and, were she to be in boy’s clothes, she would be indistinguishable form the village boys. The case was passed to Dr Robert Minne in Lille who, after several operations over four years, announced that he had established the patient’s male sex. On the doctor’s authority, the patient became Henri Accès, and his birth certificate was re-issued.
The story was told in newspapers of several nations, often juxtaposing his name to that of Lili Elbe.
Henri’s later life is not documented.
- Andre Salmin. “Vice Versa”. Voila, 25 Aout 1934: 5. Online.
- “Medicine: Girls into Boys”. Time, 27 August 1934.
- “Moustache coming, so choir singer will shed skirts, don trousers”. The Toronto Star, 18 August 1934.
- Joanne Meyerowitz, How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States. Harvard University Press, 2002: 31-4
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