The Boy in the Dress

 
Unsolved true crimes often make compulsive reading. This book explores the life and death of a young soldier, Warwick Meale, who was found severely bashed under a bridge over a creek in Townsville, Queensland, on 15 August 1944. He later died in hospital.

Written by his nephew who grew up with considerable curiosity about his uncle, this book delves into the possible motive for the murder, i.e. that Warwick was gay in an era when homosexuality was unacceptable and that he may have been the victim of a hate crime.

In spite of an intensive investigation by Queensland police and detectives from other States, no-one was ever charged with the crime although there were similar assaults on, and murders, of servicemen around the same time. Likely suspects include members of both the Australian armed forces and the US Navy.

The book is well-researched and frank about hidden homosexuality in the ranks during the War. It also brings to notice the frustrations and obstructions that civilian police forces came up against when dealing with military and naval authorities in tracking down likely suspects.

The author’s own experiences growing up and coming out as gay are intertwined in the book but apart from family suspicions (unspoken about until fairly recent times), one photograph of a small boy playing dress-ups and a single query in an investigative document, there was never any absolute proof that Warwick was gay and that he might have been killed for making an unwelcome approach – which was the motive in the brutal murder of another soldier, Jack Lloyd, whose attacker confessed.

There are areas of “creative non-fiction” with imagined conversations which are always problematic in the historical context but the research is thorough, the writing is impassioned and the narrative flows well. It is an interesting exposition on the hidden layers of society in a very different era, but being based on an assumption that can never be proved it fails to be totally convincing.
 
Three-and-a-half stars.


Dymocks Australia

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