(#11) Barry Tried To Hide The Secret Even After The End
In 1865, Barry turned 70. Nearing the end of his life, Barry declared that he did not want anyone to dress his body after his passing. In fact, Barry ordered that he be interred in the same clothes he perished in.
But when Barry passed, his housemaid Sophia Bishop examined the body and discovered Barry's female anatomy. Bishop also uncovered another secret Barry had hidden - the body had stretch marks on its stomach, a sign of a previous pregnancy.
Barry's disguise also concealed a painful past. As a teenager, Margaret Ann Bulkley had been violated by a family member. In the aftermath, Margaret gave birth and her mother raised the baby.
(#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.
(#6) The Surgeon Swore And Developed A Reputation As A Ladies' Man
James Barry had a terrible temper. He yelled at Florence Nightengale in Istanbul because she didn't protect herself from the sun. He shouted at patients in his hospital and had a reputation for smashing medicine bottles against the wall. Barry even challenged a captain to a duel.
Throughout his long career, Barry swore heavily and flirted with women, with one man accusing the surgeon of paying "improper attentions" to his wife.
In one case, when someone said, "You look more like a woman than a man," Barry struck him in the face with a whip.
(#12) Barry's Doctor Said The Surgeon's Secret Was 'None Of My Business'
Major D.R. McKinnon was James Barry's doctor. When Barry passed in 1865, McKinnon signed the death certificate certifying that Barry was a man.
In letters to the General Register Office that were later leaked, McKinnon said that Barry's gender was "none of my business."
Today, Barry's headstone in London's Kensal Green cemetery says nothing about the surgeon's secret.
(#13) After Barry's Passing, Women Faced Down Mobs To Enter Medical School
James Barry lived and perished before any UK medical schools began admitting women. Four years after his passing, in 1869, the University of Edinburgh finally admitted Sophia Jex-Blake. Jex-Blake had already been rejected from Harvard University, which stated, "There is no provision for the education of women in any department of this university."
But it wasn't a smooth path at Edinburgh for Jex-Blake. She had to pay higher fees simply because she was a woman, and multiple faculty members refused to teach a female student.
Tensions simmered at the institution for a year until 1870, when a riot of 200 people tried to block Jex-Blake from an anatomy exam. As she wrote, "As soon as we reached the Surgeon's Hall we saw a dense mob filling up the road... The crowd was sufficient to stop all the traffic for an hour. We walked up to the gates, which remained open until we came within a yard of them, when they were slammed in our faces by a number of young men."
Edinburgh refused to let Jex-Blake take her degree and didn't grant its first medical degree to a woman until 1894.
(#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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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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