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(#1) James Barry Kept The Truth Hidden Until The End
When renowned surgeon Dr. James Barry passed in 1865, his housemaid Sophia Bishop made a startling discovery: Barry was biologically female.
Bishop's screams alerted others in the house, and the undertakers quickly confirmed Barry's secret. The news spread across the British Empire.
James Barry successfully hid the fact that he was a woman for decades - but why? Some see Barry as a trans pioneer, while others claim Barry only adopted the male persona because women were banned from medical school. Barry's secret life raises many questions apart from how a nearly 5-foot-tall woman was able to pass as a man for decades.
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(#2) The Daughter Of An Irish Grocer Took Her Uncle’s Name After He Passed
Margaret Ann Bulkley was born in Cork, Ireland, around 1789. The daughter of a grocer, Margaret grew up frustrated by the limits placed on her because of her gender. At just 18 years old, Margaret yelled at her brother, “Were I not a girl, I would be a soldier!”
In her late teens, Margaret and her mother moved to London to stay with her uncle, James Barry. A member of the Royal Academy, Barry introduced his niece Margaret to aristocrats and other powerful people in the city. Barry believed Margaret's intellect would carry her far.
When James Barry passed in 1806, Margaret took his name to enroll in medical school.
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(#7) Rumors Swirled That Barry Had An Affair With The Governor Of South Africa
As an army surgeon, James Barry spent 10 years serving in Cape Town, South Africa. While in South Africa, Barry befriended Lord Charles Somerset, the British governor for the colony.
Eventually, Barry moved into the governor's residence. Rumors swirled that the surgeon and the governor were having an affair. One poster even accused Somerset of "buggering Dr. Barry." The scandal resulted in a commission to investigate the relationship, which exonerated both.
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(#3) Wearing 3-Inch Shoe Inserts, Barry Enrolled In Medical School
In 1809, James Barry arrived at Edinburgh Medical School, one of the top medical schools in Europe. Barry wore a long overcoat and 3-inch shoe inserts. Fellow classmates remember Barry speaking in a high-pitched voice.
In fact, Margaret Bulkley had adopted a new name and gender to enroll in medical school before women were allowed to attend. Barry never took off his overcoat, even in summer, and stared down anyone who questioned his story.
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(#8) As A Surgeon, Barry Performed The First Successful Caesarean Section
Barry is said to have been a great surgeon, and he ascended to the rank of Inspector General in 1857. The role, equivalent to a Brigadier General, placed Barry in charge of military hospitals.
In a testament to his skills, Barry's career included a notable breakthrough: He was the first surgeon to successfully perform a caesarean section where both mother and child lived. Barry performed the emergency C-section in 1826 on a kitchen table in Cape Town. Without anesthesia, Barry's patient and her child survived the procedure.
Barry also pushed for social reforms in South Africa, railing against the harsh treatment at correctional facilities and asylums. The surgeon advocated for better water sanitation in Cape Town and treated everyone, including slaves and the poor.
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(#14) Why Did Barry Choose To Live As A Man?
For decades, people speculated about Barry's birth identity and why the doctor lived as a man for so many years. One newspaper claimed Barry was the illegitimate child of King George III. Charles Dickens declared Barry "A Mystery Still." Novels and plays told and retold Barry's life story.
Today, we know that Barry was born Margaret Bulkley. We also know that Bulkley adopted a male persona to enroll in medical school. But today's debate over Barry uses different terms than the 19th century debate. What pronouns should we use (most use "he," but not all) when discussing Barry? Was Barry a trans pioneer? Or is Barry's story about women excluded from the professional world?
The truth includes both: Bulkley couldn't pursue medicine without changing her gender, and Barry lived for decades as a trans man. As for the surgeon's true gender identity, that's one secret Barry took to the grave.
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About This Tool
There are very few historical records about James Barry, who was a military doctor in the British Army in Cape Town, she fought for better food, better sanitation facilities, and medical care for prisoners, lepers, and soldiers. In 1826, she became the first British doctor to complete a Caesarean section. In the summer of 1865, when infectious dysentery raged in London, she died of the plague, and people discovered when she was buried that she was actually a woman.
The secret of Dr. Barry was revealed. She became the first woman to graduate from medical school in the UK and kept her gender secret for more than half a century. Army officials locked up her service records for nearly a century. The random tool shares 14 legendary stories of James Barry, her real name was Margaret.
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