Profile Edward De Lacy Evans
Edward De Lacy Evans (c. 1830–1901) was an Irish-born Australian performer and public figure who lived as a man for much of his adult life. Born in County Kilkenny, Ireland, Evans arrived in Victoria in 1856 and adopted the name Edward De Lacy Evans.
During his life in Australia, Evans worked in a range of occupations, including mining, blacksmithing and agricultural work. His public identity as Edward De Lacy Evans was not originally a theatrical performance. After his identity became known publicly in 1879, however, his life story was transformed into a form of popular entertainment.
Timeline of exhibitions
1856 onward — Victoria
Evans lived publicly as Edward De Lacy Evans and presented himself in men’s clothing. This was primarily a lived social identity rather than a theatrical performance.
1879 — Bendigo
Evans’s identity became the subject of widespread public attention after an examination while he was receiving hospital treatment. Newspapers described Evans using nineteenth-century terms including “male impersonator,” “female impersonator” and “man-woman.”
1879 — Victoria
Following the publicity, Evans appeared publicly in commercial exhibitions in which his life and masculine identity became the subject of popular entertainment.
January 1880 — Melbourne
Evans appeared at St George’s Hall in Bourke Street in an attraction advertised as “The Wonderful Male Impersonator.” This is the clearest documented instance of Evans being commercially presented through the language of male impersonation.
1880 — Melbourne and Sydney
Evans continued to appear in exhibitions and popular entertainment associated with the publicity surrounding his identity. His story was presented as a curiosity and mystery rather than as a conventional theatrical character in a play.
September 1880 — Sydney
Evans appeared at Egyptian Hall in George Street as part of a popular entertainment programme. Publicity presented the attraction through the sensational terminology of the “Man-Woman Mystery.”
1880 — Australia
A published account of Evans’s life circulated under the title The History and Confession of Ellen Tremaye, Alias De Lacy Evans the Man-Woman. The entertainment surrounding Evans was based on the public presentation of his identity and biography rather than a conventional male stage role.
After 1880
Evans withdrew from the entertainment circuit and spent his later years in institutional care in Melbourne. There is no established evidence of later exhibitions.
Historical interpretation
Edward De Lacy Evans occupies a distinctive place in Australian performance history. His documented appearances should not automatically be described as performance. Language was different and included terms such as “male impersonator,” “female impersonator,” “man-woman” and “man-woman mystery.”
Importantly, Evans’s masculinity was not confined to a theatrical role. For most of the period in which he lived in Australia, he presented and lived publicly as Edward De Lacy Evans. The commercial appearances of 1879–1880 subsequently turned that public identity and personal history into a form of popular exhibition.
Evans’s documented career therefore encompasses both lived masculine identity and a later commercial performance of that identity. The surviving evidence does not establish him as a conventional theatrical male impersonator in the manner of a music-hall or vaudeville performer.
References
Chesser, L. S. (2008). Parting with my sex: Cross-dressing, inversion and sexuality in Australian cultural life. Sydney University Press.
Colligan, M. (2002). The mysterious Edward/Ellen De Lacy Evans: The picaresque in real life. La Trobe Journal, 69, 59–68.
Public Record Office Victoria. (1856). Ocean Monarch inward passenger lists and assisted immigrant records. Victorian archival records.
State Library of New South Wales. (c. 1879). Ellen Tremaye alias Edward de Lacy Evans. P1/220.
State Library of Victoria. (1879). Portraits of Edward de Lacy Evans in dress, and in a three-piece suit. H96.160/147.
The Argus. (1880, January 17). Historical report of the appearance of “The Wonderful Male Impersonator” at St George’s Hall, Melbourne. La Trobe Journal
Sydney Morning Herald. (1880, September 18). Historical report of the Egyptian Hall appearance, Sydney. La Trobe Journal
Unknown author. (1880). The history and confession of Ellen Tremaye, alias De Lacy Evans, the man-woman. Wm. Marshall. State Library of New South Wales
Ball, J. R. B., & Emmerson, R. (1978, August 26). A case of personation. Medical Journal of Australia, 2, 198. [Referenced in archival cataloguing; the present research does not use it as primary evidence for the 1880 performances.] Victorian Collections
Note on source use: Historical newspapers and archival records have been treated as the principal evidence. Later scholarly sources have been used to reconstruct chronology and source relationships, not as substitutes for the historical evidence.
