Dr. James Barry
Throwback Thursday Snapshot
When Margaret Ann Bulkley was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1789, no woman in the Western world had ever officially practiced as a doctor. Societal limitations prevented them from doing so, offering roles that seldom extended beyond caregiving within the home.
Margaret would change this, though not during her lifetime, as she would live and practice medicine disguised as a man named Dr. James Barry. Her sex only became known during an autopsy after passing away.
Why Margaret made her decision remains debated. Some argue it was a pragmatic choice driven by ambition to practice medicine. Others suggest she may have wanted to live as a man beyond any professional necessity. What remains indisputable is her commitment to this life, adopting the male identity for many decades. And there is no debate about Dr. Barry’s significant impact on medicine and the lives she touched.
James’ medical career began at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated as a Doctor of Medicine in 1812 at the age of just seventeen. The epigraph of his medical school thesis included the following: “Do not consider my youth, but whether I show a man’s wisdom.”
After graduating, James joined the British Army as a hospital assistant, working in positions across the British Empire. Here, he developed an excellent reputation and grew into a renowned surgeon. Among his many accomplishments, in 1826, James became the first European doctor to perform a successful Caesarean in the British Empire where both mother and child survived.
As he grew in his career, James also developed a reputation for a legendary temper, though one usually used to improve medical practices and conditions. He fought for sanitation reforms in military hospitals and pushed for the humane treatment of soldiers, prisoners, and civilians. Established norms changed as a result. Even colleagues who sparred with him would eventually come to acknowledge his important work. As a result, James’ took on increasing responsibilities, eventually becoming the Inspector General of Military Hospitals, where he oversaw the medical care and hospital conditions of the British Army.
After many years of grueling work and living in secrecy, James had to retire in 1859 after becoming ill. Ironically, that year also marked a woman’s first official entry into British medicine when Elizabeth Blackwell was admitted to the United Kingdom’s Medical Register.
Just a few years later, James passed away from dysentery in 1865. A newspaper article published the following shortly after,
“An incident is just now being discussed in military circles so extraordinary that, were not the truth capable of being vouched for by official authority, the narration would certainly be deemed absolutely incredible. Our officers quartered at the Cape between fifteen and twenty years ago may remember a certain Dr Barry attached to the medical staff there, and enjoying a reputation for considerable skill in his profession, especially for firmness, decision and rapidity in difficult operations. This gentleman had entered the army in 1813, had passed, of course, through the grades of assistant surgeon and surgeon in various regiments, and had served as such in various quarters of the globe. His professional acquirements had procured for him promotion to the staff at the Cape. About 1840 he became promoted to be medical inspector, and was transferred to Malta. He proceeded from Malta to Corfu where he was quartered for many years... and upon his death was discovered to be a woman. The motives that occasioned, and the time when commenced this singular deception are both shrouded in mystery. But thus it stands as an indubitable fact, that a woman was for forty years an officer in the British service, and fought one duel and had sought many more, had pursued a legitimate medical education, and received a regular diploma, and had acquired almost a celebrity for skill as a surgical operator.”
Sources:
“Cesarean Section - A Brief History.” National Library of Medicine, https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/cesarean/part2.html
Hurwitz, Brian, and Ruth Richardson. “Inspector General James Barry MD: Putting The Woman In Her Place.” BMJ: British Medical Journal, vol. 298, no. 6669, 1989, pp. 299–305. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/29702150. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.
Manchester Guardian, August 21, 1865.
Ortenberg, Rebecca. “How History Keeps Ignoring James Barry.” Distillations Magazine, Science History Institute, https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/how-history-keeps-ignoring-james-barry/