麻豆社

During World War One a house at Millthorpe in north Derbyshire became a place of pilgrimage for soldiers who were questioning their sexuality.

They were coming to meet the socialist and early gay rights champion; Edward Carpenter, who lived there openly with his lover and regularly visited soldiers at war hospitals.

War poet Siegfried Sassoon was one of several soldiers who wrote to Carpenter thanking him for helping them come to terms with their homosexuality. Carpenter was in his seventies by the time the war began, and had published a collection of essays in 1908 entitled "The Intermediate Sex". It was the first widely available book in English that portrayed homosexuality in a positive light.

Although homosexual acts were illegal, out of the hundreds of thousands of men who served it is perhaps surprising that only 22 officers and 270 soldiers were court-martialled by the British Army for the offence. Some officers even admitted they were prepared to turn a blind eye to relationships between men rather than risk damaging morale.

It wasn鈥檛 until 2000 that homosexuals were allowed to serve in the military.

Location: Millthorpe, Derbyshire S18 7WJ
Image: Edward Carpenter in his garden cottage at Millthorpe, courtesy of Sheffield Archive and Local Studies
Presented by 麻豆社 reporter Kate Linderholm

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