Digital Transgender Archive

Bartlett and Ross in drag pose in profile, with matching hair and make-up. Photographic postcard, 1937/1938.

Part of James Gardiner Collection: photograph album labelled ‘Drag’.

They have curly blonde hair and heavy eye make-up as they look to the right of the composition. Bartlett and Ross were perhaps the best known duo of female impersonators in Great Britain in the years after World War II. As had happened after World War I, servicemen who had entertained each other in drag concert parties during the war organized themselves into highly successful acts which toured the UK well into the 1950s. These entertainments had titles such as 'We were in the Forces' 'Soldiers in skirts ', 'Forces showboat ' and many more. In common with many other members of these companies, Terry Bartlett and Colin Ross already had several years' practice behind them as professional drag artists, and the present autographed photo postcard dates from 1937/1938 (James Gardiner)