James Barry (surgeon)
James Barry was a military surgeon in the British Army. Originally from the city of Cork in Ireland, Barry obtained a medical degree from the University of Edinburgh Medical School, then served first in Cape Town, South Africa, and subsequently in many parts of the British Empire. Before retirement, Barry had risen to the rank of Inspector General in charge of military hospitals, the second-highest medical office in the British Army. He improved conditions not only for wounded soldiers, but also for the native inhabitants. Barry performed the first recorded caesarean section by a European in Africa in which both the mother and child survived the surgery.
Barry, who lived his entire adult life as a man, was named Margaret Anne at birth and was known as female in childhood. Barry lived as a man in both public and private life, at least in part, in order to be accepted as a university student, and to pursue a career as a surgeon. His anatomy became known to the public and to military colleagues only after his death.
Early life
James Barry, was born in Cork around 1789., as the second child of Jeremiah and Mary Anne Bulkley. His mother, Mary Anne Bulkley was the sister of James Barry, a celebrated Irish artist and professor of painting at London's Royal Academy. His father, Jeremiah Bulkley ran the weigh house in Merchant's Quay, Cork, but anti-Catholic sentiment led to him being fired. This and subsequent financial mismanagement left Mary Anne and Barry without the financial support of either Jeremiah or the Bulkleys' first son John.In 1803, a third child appeared in their household, Julianna Bulkley. Historians Michael du Preez and Jeremy Dronfield speculate that Juliana was Barry's daughter, borne as a result of childhood rape. No evidence supports this theory, aside from stretch marks on Barry's body indicating a possible past pregnancy, and various circumstances make it unlikely. Around that time, Barry's father ejected his wife and child from their home, and later wrote to his wife that he had "made up mind to forgive". Ann Heilmann disputes this, noting that many fictional and non-fiction accounts present Barry's alleged pregnancy as affirmation of his womanhood; she offers the alternate explanation that Julianna was the daughter of an affair by Barry's mother.
In 1804, Barry and his mother left Ireland for London to apply for help from her brother James Barry. He rejected her request, having been estranged from her for more than thirty years. However, the inheritance from his death in 1806, as well as assistance from some of his former friends, allowed Mrs. Bulkley and her son a degree of comfort.
The teenaged Barry was educated with the prospect of becoming a tutor, but with no work history, he struggled to find positions. Barry, his mother, and her late brother's influential, liberal-minded friends appeared to form a plan to enable Barry to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh. Barry and his mother departed aboard a Leith smack on 30 November 1809.
From then on, he was known as James Barry, nephew of the late James Barry, and remained so for the next 56 years. In a letter to Daniel Reardon sent 14 December 1809, Barry asked for any letters addressed to Margaret Bulkley to be forwarded to Mary Anne Bulkley, writing "it was very useful for Mrs Bulkley to have a Gentleman to take care of her on Board Ship and to have one in a strange country." Though signed "James Barry", Reardon wrote on the back of the envelope "Miss Bulkley, 14 December"; this crucial piece of evidence was the one which enabled researchers to confirm Barry's past identity.
Arriving in Edinburgh in November 1809, Barry entered the Medical School as student of literature and medicine. His stature, voice, and smooth skin led many to suspect that he was a pre-pubescent boy, and the University Senate initially attempted to block Barry's application for the final examinations due to his apparent youth. However, the Earl of Buchan, a friend of Fryer and Barry's late namesake, persuaded the Senate to relent and Barry qualified Medicinae Doctor in 1812, writing his thesis on femoral hernia. He then moved to London, signing up for the Autumn Course 1812/1813 as a pupil of the United Hospitals of Guy's and St Thomas'. His teachers included Henry Cline and celebrated surgeon Astley Cooper. On 2 July 1813, he successfully passed the examination of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Career
Upon joining the army, Barry was commissioned as a Hospital Assistant in the British Army on 6 July 1813, taking up posts in Chelsea and then the Royal Military Hospital in Plymouth, achieving a promotion to Assistant Surgeon to the Forces, equivalent to lieutenant, on 7 December 1815.Following this military training, Barry was posted to Cape Town, South Africa, in 1816. Through Lord Buchan, he had a letter of introduction to the Governor, Lieutenant General Lord Charles Somerset. Following the successful, even spectacular, treatment of Lord Charles's sick daughter, he was welcomed into the family, maintained a close friendship with the Governor, and became his personal physician. In 1822 Somerset appointed him as Colonial Medical Inspector, an extraordinary jump in expectations from Barry's low military rank, which brought with it great responsibility. Over ten years of work in the Cape, he effected significant changes, among them improvements to sanitation and water systems, improved conditions for enslaved people, prisoners and the mentally ill, and provision of a sanctuary for the leper population. He also performed one of the first known successful Caesarean sections in which both mother and child survived; the child was christened James Barry Munnik in his honour, and the name was passed down through the family, leading to Barry's name being borne by a later Prime Minister of South Africa, J. B. M. Hertzog. Barry also gained enemies by criticising local officials and their handling of medical matters, but the advantage of a close relationship with the Governor meant that the repercussions of these outspoken views were usually smoothed over.
Barry was promoted to Surgeon to the Forces on 22 November 1827. His subsequent posting was to Mauritius in 1828. In 1829, he risked a great deal of trouble by going absent without leave to return to England and treat Lord Charles Somerset, who had fallen ill, and remained there until Lord Charles' death in 1831. His subsequent posting was to Jamaica, and then the island of Saint Helena in 1836. At St Helena, one clash with a fellow army surgeon resulted in him being arrested and court-martialled on a charge of "conduct unbecoming of the character of an Officer and a Gentleman". He was found not guilty, and honourably acquitted.
In 1840, Barry was posted to the Leeward Islands and Windward Islands of the West Indies, there focusing on medicine, management and improving the conditions of the troops, and receiving a promotion to Principal Medical Officer. In 1845, he contracted yellow fever and left for England for sick leave in October. After being cleared for duty, he was posted to Malta in 1846. Here he was severely reprimanded for inexplicably taking a seat in the local church that was reserved for the clergy, and had to deal with the threat – and eventual actuality – of a cholera epidemic, which broke out in 1850.
The following posting was to Corfu in 1851, which brought with it a promotion to the rank of Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals on 16 May, equivalent to lieutenant colonel. In 1857 Barry was posted to Canada, and granted the local rank of Inspector General of Hospitals on 25 September. In that position, he fought for better food, sanitation and proper medical care for prisoners and lepers, as well as soldiers and their families. This local rank was confirmed as substantive on 7 December 1858.
Wherever Barry served across the British Empire, improvements were made to sanitary conditions and the conditions and diet of both the common soldier and other under-represented groups. He was outraged by unnecessary suffering, and took a heavy-handed and sometimes tactless approach to demanding improvements for the poor and underprivileged which often incited anger from officials and military officers; on several occasions he was both arrested and demoted for the extremity of this behaviour. He held strict views about nutrition, being completely vegetarian and teetotal, and, while keeping most personal relationships distant, was very fond of pets, particularly a beloved poodle named Psyche. The name of the black servant Barry first employed in South Africa and who remained with him until his death is not precisely known, although a fictionalized account of Barry's life calls him "Black John". Playwright Jean Binnie's radio play Doctor Barry identified him as John Joseph Danson.
Death
Despite protesting against the decision, Barry was forcefully retired by the army on 19 July 1859 because of ill health and old age, and was succeeded as inspector general of hospitals by David Dumbreck. After a quiet retirement in London, Barry died from dysentery on 25 July 1865. The identity of the woman who discovered the truth of his physical sex is disputed, but she was probably a charwoman who also laid out the dead. The charwoman, after failing to elicit payment for her services, sought redress in another way; she visited Barry's physician, Major D. R. McKinnon, who had issued the death certificate upon which Barry was identified as male. The woman claimed that his body had been biologically female and had marks suggesting he had at one point borne a child. However, no professional examination was carried out which could have confirmed these points beyond doubt. When McKinnon refused to pay her, she took the story to the press, and the situation became public. It was discussed in an exchange of letters between George Graham of the General Register Office, and McKinnon.McKinnon's response was as follows:
After the matter was made public, some people claimed to have known of it all along, although many who had known him expressed surprise or even disbelief. The British Army, seeking to suppress the story, sealed Barry's service records for the next 100 years. The historian Isobel Rae gained access to the army records in the 1950s, and concluded that the painter James Barry was indeed Barry's uncle. Barry was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, with a Portland stone headstone inscribed Dr James Barry Inspector General of Hospitals. It was claimed by several sources that "John", the manservant who always attended Barry, returned to Jamaica, but his actual fate is unknown.