James Barry 1789 - 1865

James Barry was a physician and military surgeon. After receiving a Medical Diploma in Edinburgh in 1812, Barry moved to London and passed the examination of the Royal College of Surgeons of England the following year. This was followed by a medical career in the army that lasted half a century and was based almost entirely in outstations of the British Empire, including South Africa, Jamaica, Mauritius and St Helena.

A progressive surgeon, who in 1826 performed one of the first successful Caesarean sections, Barry was also a medical administrator capable of observing health issues at a population level – for example when producing an influential report on cholera in Malta. Bringing wider health improvements to local communities was also something that was consistently advocated by Barry. In the first major posting abroad, in Britain’s Cape Colony in South Africa, reorganising medical care with a strong emphasis on public health and improving local sanitation and nutrition. While at the other end of a long career, Barry oversaw a hospital on the island of Corfu for soldiers injured during the Crimean War which saw some of the highest recovery rates of the entire conflict. During this time there was allegedly a personal clash with Florence Nightingale. She later wrote that Barry was a “blackguard” and “the most hardened creature” she had ever met.

James Barry had a notoriously fiery temper and was the subject of a number of rumours and intrigues over the years. On one occasion even being court-martialled on a charge of "conduct unbecoming of the character of an Officer and a Gentleman". But it was following Barry’s death from dysentery in 1865, that a major scandal emerged. Newspapers reported that when the body was examined it was found to be anatomically female. It is now believed that Barry was probably born Margaret Ann Bulkley in Cork, Ireland. As medical training and the subsequent career opportunities were not available to women at the time, and though the motivations for identifying as male can only be speculated on, it appears that Barry’s adult life was lived both publicly and privately as a man.

Dr James Barry is buried at Kensal Green, in one of London’s great Victorian cemeteries. Beneath the name, the headstone inscription simply announces that the occupant had been the Inspector General of Army Hospitals. It’s a modest epitaph to a remarkable life and career.