Georgina Somerset

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arm in arm by the seaside
Georgina Somerset with her husband
Georgina Somerset (Georgina Carol Somerset, 1923–2013, formerly George Edwin Turtle) was a dentist and former naval officer who lived for much of her life as male.[1]

George Turtle was born in Purley (then in Surrey, now part of the London Borough of Croydon) with ambiguous genitalia, but was raised as a man. He trained as a dentist, and served in that capacity in the Royal Navy from 1944. On leaving the Navy in 1948 he worked as a dentist in Croydon and later in Hove.[2]

In his mid-30s George started living as a woman, but reverted to the male role for a while. She later had hormone treatment and corrective surgery. In 1960 she had her birth certificate changed to female. In 1962 she got married in church to Christopher Somerset.[3]

She has written that sex change surgery should only be for intersex people, not for transsexuals.[4]

References

  1. http://www.croydontrans.org.uk/georgina.shtml. Accessed: 2015-07-31. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/6aQd2HAjX).
  2. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/medicine-obituaries/10498291/Georgina-Somerset-obituary.html Obituary, Daily Telegraph 5 December 2013
  3. Georgina Somerset, A Girl Called Georgina, The Book Guild Limited 1992 (bound with Over the Sex Border: Change of Sex: a comprehensive study, by Georgina Turtle, first published by Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1963)
  4. http://zagria.blogspot.co.uk/2008/05/georgina-somerset-1923-dentist.html#.UiA_Oj9h9AM A Gender Variance Who's Who, "Georgina Somerset, dentist"