British Army gets first open transgender soldier

London: The British Army may have finally taken a step that may have not been witnessed before. It has its first openly transgender officer, Captain Hannah Winterbourne of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical engineers.

Hannah realised that she was ‘living an act’ after a tour in Afghanistan and decided to come out as a transgender while at a training camp in Germany.

Since then she has risen through the ranks to become the highest ranking openly transgender soldier in the regular army and is second-in-command over a company of 100 soldiers.

“I think initially it was a bit of a shock to some people, they weren’t really expecting it because it’s not something you come across every day in the army,” she said.

“However I think they soon realised that it just didn’t make a difference to my job.”

Captain Winterbourne said that despite having a reputation for being old fashioned, the British Army is actually a very forward thinking organisation and a “fantastic employer” for transgender soldiers.

“We’ve had policy since 1999 and it’s all really, really clear and just helps everyone in the entire process know what their responsibilities are, what they’re doing etc,” she added.

“It’s just there to support the soldier and just allows us to get on with being soldiers rather than just being trans soldiers.”

Hannah joined a college for armed forces at the age of 15 and the army helped to pay for her degree in engineering at Newcastle University. She then undertook officer training at Sandhurst.

Though she cannot pinpoint an exact moment when she realised she was a girl but clarified: “As early as I can remember there were feelings that were not what you expect.”

After her Afghanistan tour, Hannah asked doctors to help her transition and she is now going through hormone therapy.

“By going through hormone therapy and some surgery they have allowed me to change my body to an extent where I can feel happy enough to walk down the street as a female,” she said.

“People see a female and they interact with me as a female. It has given me self-confidence.”

Captain Winterbourne now also works as the transgender representative for the British army which sees her deal with education and welfare issues.

She says she sees a future in the army in the medium term and hopes to become an even more senior transgender role model.