James Barry (surgeon) - Wikipedia

Thank you, my friend Maj Marty Hogan for making us aware that November 9 is the anniversary of the birth of military surgeon in the British Army James Miranda Steuart Barry who "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.
"Barry not only improved conditions for wounded soldiers, but also the conditions of the native inhabitants, and performed the first caesarean section in Africa by an Irish surgeon in which both the mother and child survived the operation."
Dr. Barry had risen to the rank of Inspector General (equivalent to Brigadier General) in charge of military hospitals in the province of Canada.

Rest in peace James Miranda Steuart Barry.

AMAZING GRACES - Dr. Barry, the female doctor in the all-male British Army
"Dr. James Barry was one of the leading medical reformers of the 19th century.
Trained in the UK, he joined the (all-male) Army Medical Corps and was posted to South Africa. There, he performed the first successful Cesarean section in 1826.
Until his death in 1865, he hid a shocking secret - Dr. James Barry was born a woman, in County Cork, Ireland."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLtCQi7zRgQ

Images:
1. A portrait of James Barry, and a photo of Dr. James Barry (man on left) in old age with a servant and a dog.
2. Miniature portrait of James Barry, painted between 1813 and 1816, before his first posting abroad. (The South African Medical Journal/public domain)
3. Photograph of Dr. James Barry, c. 1840s. (public domain)
4. The province of Canada [cartographic material]

Biographies:
1. thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/james-barry
2. maltaramc.com/staffmo/b/barryj.html

Background from thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/james-barry
"James Barry
Article by Emily Gwiazda
Published Online January 20, 2008
Last Edited June 3, 2019
James Miranda Steuart Barry, FRS (probably born Margaret Anne Bulkley), military surgeon, physician (born c. 1789–99; died 25 July 1865 in London, England). Posted across the British Empire, Barry reformed medical standards in the British army. His final and highest-ranking position was as inspector-general of military hospitals in the Province of Canada in the 1850s. After his death, it was reported that Barry’s assigned sex at birth was female. This has sparked significant debate about his identity.

Note on pronouns: This article refers to James Barry with masculine pronouns, as this was how Barry referred to himself throughout his life.

Early Life and Education
James Barry first appears on record in 1809. This was shortly before he enrolled at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) to study medicine. It is widely believed that Barry was born Margaret Anne Bulkley, to Mary Anne and Jeremiah Bulkley of Cork, Ireland around 1789. Margaret Bulkley disappears from record shortly before James Barry appears. Additionally, handwriting analysis of their letters suggests a match.

Margaret Bulkley Letter
Portion of a letter in the handwriting of Margaret Bulkley, dated 14 April 1804.
(The South African Medical Journal/public domain)
Margaret Bulkley Letter
PrevNext
1
2
Barry’s vague and sometimes conflicting statements about his childhood have also raised questions about his identity at birth. He made inconsistent references to his birthdate, for example.

When Barry began his studies at the University of Edinburgh, only men were admitted. Many believe this is why Barry took on a male identity. Barry graduated with a Doctor of Medicine in 1812, submitting a final thesis on femoral hernias (a less common type of hernia that occurs most often in older women). He then returned to London and took more courses in surgery and anatomy. These were relatively new fields at the time. Barry was admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons in London in early 1813.

Other evidence historians have cited to link Bulkley to Barry
– A Royal Academy artist named James Barry was probably Margaret’s uncle. He introduced his young relative to Venezuelan revolutionary General Francisco de Miranda and David Steuart Erskine, Lord Buchan. These connections gave the aspiring doctor credibility. They also appear to have inspired his names. James Barry the artist died in 1806 and his money made it possible for James Miranda Steuart Barry to pay for university.
– Mary Anne Bulkley accompanied Barry while in Edinburgh, supposedly as his aunt. Barry once introduced her as his mother, however.
– In a letter to General de Miranda, Barry asks him not to mention Margaret Bulkley: “As Lord B— nor anyone here knows anything about Mrs Bulkley’s Daughter, I trust my dear General that neither you nor the Doctor will mention in any of your correspondence anything bout my Cousin’s friendship and care for me.”
– In a letter, Margaret Bulkley once expressed her desire to serve in the army, as Barry would do: “Was I not a girl I would be a soldier!”

Army Medical Career
James Barry passed the Army Medical Board oral exam in July 1813. He began his army career as an assistant in military hospitals in Chelsea and Plymouth, England. After two years, he received his first overseas posting to the Cape Colony (now South Africa). This began a long, distinguished and at times stormy career across the British Empire. Wherever he was posted, Barry fought to improve hygiene, sanitation and medical standards ( see also Public Health).

Barry arrived in Cape Town in 1816. Over the course of 12 years, he worked his way from assistant surgeon to colonial medical inspector, physician to the governor’s household and inspector for many public institutions. He bettered the treatment of prisoners, people with leprosy and patients in asylums. He also tightened regulations for giving drugs to patients. His push for reform, short temper and vocal discontent with red tape often landed him in trouble. He was demoted, arrested and even fought a duel with an army captain.

Did you know?
In South Africa, Barry successfully performed one of the first recorded Caesarean sections where both the mother and child survived.

After Cape Town, Barry took up postings in Mauritius and then Jamaica. In Jamaica, his reforms led to a drop in the number of deaths in military camps. He saw his first front-line military action during the Great Slave Revolt in Jamaica in 1831–32.

His next posting was as principal medical officer (PMO) in St. Helena. He was arrested twice during his two years on the island. The first arrest occurred after Barry offended a deputy by going over his head to a superior. Barry was found not guilty of “conduct unbecoming to an officer and gentleman” after a court martial (military trial) (see also Military Justice System).

There are few records of the second incident in St. Helena. It appears, however, that Barry was arrested for refusing to obey authority when he did not approve the medical leave of a healthy regiment captain. Barry was sent back to England under military arrest. He was soon cleared of the charges.

He continued his career in the West Indies, working his way to PMO of Trinidad. After recovering from an illness in England, Barry was PMO once again, this time in Malta. After that, he was deputy inspector-general of hospitals in Corfu. During the Crimean War, Barry organized a hospital for injured soldiers in Corfu.

Inspector-General of Military Hospitals in Canada
In 1857, James Barry was posted to the Province of Canada. He arrived in Montreal on 3 November. In Canada, he attained the highest rank for medical officers in the military: inspector-general of military hospitals. He was now likely in his midsixties. Having spent the first 45 years of his career in hot climates, Barry noted this posting was “to cool myself after such a long residence in the tropics and hot countries.” This was a nod to the trouble he often found himself in. As inspector-general of hospitals, Barry oversaw barracks and hospitals in Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto and Kingston. As he had done in his previous postings, he began to reform health-care standards in the military.

Library and Archives Canada
Barry brought more variety to the soldiers’ diets and rations. He pressed for ovens in the cookhouses of barracks so that staff could cook a wider range of foods. A stickler for sanitation, he improved the drainage and sewer systems in the Quebec barracks. When he arrived in Canada, married soldiers and their wives did not have separate sleeping quarters. Instead, they lived in the barracks with the other soldiers. Barry believed that living among 10 or 20 men was degrading for women and would lead to alcoholism. He therefore established married quarters to provide privacy for families.

Barry wintered in Montreal during his time in the Province of Canada. He was known for travelling through the city wrapped in furs on a red sleigh with silver bells. He became a member of the St. James Club, an elite Montreal gentlemen’s club. In 1858, Barry fell ill with bronchitis and/or the flu. He took a temporary leave from work in April 1859 and returned to England that May.

Later Life and Death
In England, the Medical Board declared James Barry unfit for service because of ill heath. He argued for reinstatement — “I am now prepared to serve Her Majesty in any quarter of the Globe to which I may be sent” — but did not succeed. By the end of his career, Barry was the most senior inspector-general of hospitals in the British army.

He returned to Jamaica one last time to visit friends and lived the last years of his life in London. Barry died on 25 July 1865, victim of a diarrhea outbreak.

Barry had previously asked to be buried in the clothes he died in, without further inspection of his body. However, his corpse was prepared for burial by a servant. Shortly after his death and burial, the servant approached the army claiming she had not been paid her services. She also made a serious claim: in laying out the body, she had discovered Barry to have “a perfect female body” and stretch marks possibly indicating that Barry had given birth.

The doctor who had signed Barry’s death certificate had not examined his body after death. Having known Barry for several years, he had been able to identify the body without doing so. When the servant insisted to the doctor that Barry was female, he thought that Barry may have been a hermaphrodite (now referred to as intersex).

The servant likely came forward with this story hoping to be paid to keep Barry’s secret. However, the news that Barry had been assigned female at birth quickly spread in military circles. The story was first published in a Dublin newspaper on 14 August 1865: “upon his death was discovered to be a woman!” Within a week, the story had been picked up by multiple newspapers in Britain, and it then spread worldwide. At this point, some people who had known Barry claimed they had always suspected him to be a woman. Others claimed they had known, but kept it secret at Barry’s request.

Debate about James Barry’s Identity
Historians and scholars have proposed various theories to explain the servant’s claim that Barry had been assigned female at birth. The most popular theory is that Barry was a woman who disguised herself as a man to pursue a medical education and military career at a time when women couldn’t. In this version of events, Barry is seen as a pioneer for women in medicine (see also Collection: Women in STEM). Barry earned an MD at a time when women were not allowed to study at university. Some scholars view Barry as the first woman to practise medicine professionally in Britain and Canada. (See also History of Medicine to 1950.)

Other scholars believe that Barry was intersex. The doctor who attended to him at this death was the first to suggest this idea. As no post-mortem examination was conducted and Barry was buried soon after his death, there is little evidence to support this theory. It is also possible that the servant was mistaken or lying, and that Barry was a cisgender male.

The theory that Barry was a transgender male has become popular, but that idea has been largely ignored by historians. Those arguing for this theory point out that Barry referred to himself with male pronouns (he/him). He also spent 50 years living as a man and asked that no one examine his body after death. When Barry was accused of sodomy (at that time, a crime) in Cape Town, he did not try to defend himself by arguing that he was assigned female at birth.

While there is no agreement on the exact nature of James Barry’s identity and there likely never will be, his achievements are clear and well documented. Barry’s work was central to reforming military medical standards in Canada and across the British Empire."

2. Background from maltaramc.com/staffmo/b/barryj.html
"STAFF SURGEON JAMES MIRANDA STUART BARRY MD (ED 1812)
C.1795 – 25 JULY 1865 [MARYLEBONE LONDON]
SERVICE RECORD — JAMES MIRANDA STUART BARRY
James Miranda Stuart Barry
1759—1865 (RAMC/801/6/5/3).
James Miranda Stuart Barry was alleged to have been a woman who disguised herself as a man so as to pursue medical studies at a time when females where not allowed to become doctors. He was clever and agreeable save for the drawbacks of a most quarrelsome temper, and inordinate addiction to arguments.5
1812 Qualified at the University of Edinburgh, aged just 17 years. His MD thesis in Latin was on hernia of the groin. Worked as a pupil dresser at the United Hospitals of Guy's and St Thomas's under the tutelage of Astley Cooper.
5 July 1813 In Jan 1813, Barry passed the examination of the Royal College of Surgeons of London. He was commissioned Hospital Assistant on 5 July.
7 Dec 1815 Commissioned Staff Assistant Surgeon.
1816-1828 Served in the Cape Colony South Africa as Staff Surgeon to the Governor, Lord Charles Somerset. Fought a duel with Captain Cloete, Aide-de-Camp to the Governor, after Captain Cloete had pulled Barry's rather long nose for the disparaging remarks he had made about a local lady.6
The young Staff Surgeon established a reputation as a skilled physician, especially in midwifery and women's diseases. In 1826, he was credited to have performed the first successful caesarean section in South Africa. This was one of the earliest recorded cases in which both mother and child survived.
Left the Cape on his own accord following a disagreement with the Senior Medical Officer Surgeon Major McNab on his confidential report. Appeared before the War Office and was appointed Regimental Surgeon to the 3rd West India Regiment based in Jamaica. He served with the regiment at British Guiana and Sierra Leone on the West Coast of Africa.
22 Nov 1827 Promoted Staff Surgeon.
Served as PMO St Helena, an important naval and military station on the Eastern Trade Route traffic around the Cape. Among the medical officers serving under him, Barry was known as a hard man to please, and one who would brook no slackness in duty or deportment.
Malta 5 Nov 1846 Arrived from Trinidad as Principal Medical Officer Malta.
16 Nov 1846 Took charge of the Medical Department Malta Command.
Dec 1846 Was rebuked by HE The Governor Sir Patrick Stuart, for having committed a disrespectful act when soon after his arrival and dressed in full uniform, he occupied a seat in one of the stalls in the Collegiate Church of St Paul's which was reserved for the clergy.1 The Malta Mail and United Service Journal of 31 Dec 1840 published the following articles.
We express our unqualified disapprobation that an officer and a gentleman presuming on his position should dare go into the vestry and there behave in so highly indecorous a manner, as Dr Barry is represented to us to have done. If a report has been done by the clergy to the governor, they too are to blame for giving out of their hands the power delegated to them in things spiritual connected with the Church of St Paul. Had Dr Barry been properly punished, Mr Cleugh would have stopped the service till the clerk or the beadle had ordered the intruder out. We fancy that the little great man would have blushed turnips and cauliflowers, and the effects on his sensitive mind would have been even greater than that produced by the governor.7
In a further comment entitled The Disfranchised Barber another commentator declared about Dr Barry that
the man is mad – clean daft and must be shaved. What in a free church dare tell a British Officer in the uniform of the Queen that he can't have a seat in the church, because he is not married Hah! Hah! Hah! – our visible muscles play fearfully and excite us to merriment. Does the beadle – the acme of all human greatness whilst showing the married to their seats the figure of every thing valorous, when wound up to the pitch of saying, – Sir, You are an officer not married – never mind your epaulets- you can't come here by no means till you have got a wife, – and then as if pleased at his own conceit, we fancy we hear the fool add, the sooner he comes to the altar the better for all here concerned.7
Another feature entitled A Poser placed the question as to whether Dr Barry has a right to sit in the clerical stalls or not? We address our question to Sir Patrick Stuart and in spite of the thunder of the dry nurse will prove it affirmatively. Dr Barry is in orders, and the stalls are specifically set apart for gentleman so honoured, ergo we maintain that this right is proved, though might, may prevent his claiming it.7
Malta 1847 Introduced stoves in the hospital wards and substituted wooded boards and trestles for iron bedsteads.
Malta May 1847 Involved in a joint consultation with Staff Surgeon 2nd Class William Edward Burton, and Assistant Surgeon Charles Dawson 42nd Regiment, when the Governor and Garrison Commander Sir Patrick Stuart contracted dysentery.
6 Sept 1848 Cholera Epidemic in Malta.
Malta 1848 Refused to declare that cholera had broken out among the troops. Barry insisted that the disease was only summer diarrhoea. He was supported in this by surgeon Daniel Armstrong 44th Foot, Assistant Surgeon Arthur Stewart Willocks 69th Foot, Surgeon Edward Robertson 44th Foot, and Dr Sankey RN, who attributed the disease to the stagnant water below Fort St Elmo.2
The Water Round was the quickest mode of transport between Valletta and the Cottonera. Disputes often arose on the correct fare to be paid.
(Main Guard Valletta)
Malta 1849 The sick from Fort Ricasoli were conveyed by boat across the harbour to the marina, and then had to make their own way to the military hospital. Those too debilitated by fever were unable to walk the two miles the hospital. In June calls were made for a more humane way to convey the sick to hospital. Barry introduced a sort of omnibus in which his sick could take air and exercise, and which could convey them from the Custom House to the military hospital.
Malta 1850 Objected to the opening of the Civil Hospital in the former House of Industry at Floriana, on the grounds that the bad air from the hospital would be detrimental to the health of the troops in the near by Floriana Barrack. The barrack was located between the Civil Hospital above it, and the Ospizio below it. The Ospizio or Poor House had 600 inmates adjoining the barracks, which being on a lower level, the foul air ascended to the barracks. Barry also objected to raising the walls of the Civil Hospital as this would impede ventilation to the barracks.
1 Nov 1850 On leave to the Levant where she intended to visit outposts in the Black Sea.
Malta 31 Mar 1851 Left for Corfu on promotion to Deputy Inspector General vice DIG William Hacket, who was promoted to local Inspector General on 16 May 1851.
The Malta Mail and United Service Journal hoped that the worthy doctor caries with him the best wishes of a very large circle of friends and acquaintances4, whereas The Malta Times of 5 October 1865, commented that during his stay in Malta, Barry was equally distinguished by his skill and by his pugnacious propensities, the latter becoming so inconveniently developed upon the slightest difference of opinion with him, that at least no notice was allowed to be taken of his fits of temper.
At Corfu, Barry supervised the care of the casualties from the Crimea, and in 1855 took his annual leave in the Crimea.
16 May 1851 Deputy Inspector General.
1856 In the Crimea, Barry made recommendations to the military camps and hospitals about the measures to be put in place to prevent rain from damaging the foundations of hospital huts.
18 Dec 1857 Appointed Inspector General Hospitals in Canada vice Thomas Alexander who was appointed a Commissioner on Sidney Herbert's Committee of Military Inquiry. In their turn, Staff Surgeon of the First Class James Henderson was promoted Deputy Inspector General Hospitals vice Barry, while Staff Surgeon of the First Class Richard Dane was recalled from half-pay to fill the vacancy on the Staff created by Henderson.
7 Dec 1858 Inspector General.
19 July 1859 In 1859, while in Canada, Barry caught influenza and bronchitis, and returned to London in a weak state. A medical Board declared him unfit and he was retired to half-pay in July.
25 July 1865 Died in a lodging house, No 14, Margaret Street, Cavendish Square, London of diarrhoea during an epidemic. In his final illness he was attended by Staff Surgeon Major David Reid McKinnon, who signed the death certificate. He was buried at Kensal Green cemetery.
After his death rumours spread that Dr Barry was a woman. Percival R Kirby in his paper read at the Annual General Meeting of the South African Museums Association held at King William's Town on 24 March 1965 argues that James Barry was a type of male hermaphrodite with testicular feminization syndrome. Staff Surgeon Major David Reid McKinnon in his reply to a query from the Registrar General as to the sex of Dr Barry, stated that he thought it as likely he might be neither, viz an imperfectly developed man.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Entry No: 3632. Johnston W. Roll of Commissioned Offices in the Medical Service of the British Army. Vol 1 (20 June 1727-23 June 1898). Aberdeen (1917).
 TNA:WO25/3898, Records of Service - Officers of the Medical Department (1790–1847).
 Succession Book Vol 1 (1 May 1846). Returns of service of medical officers in the Regular Army.
 1Malta Mail and United Service Journal No 234, 24 Dec 1846.
 2Malta Mail and United Service Journal No 329, 20 Oct 1848.
 3Malta Mail and United Service Journal No 435, 31 Oct 1850.
 4Malta Mail and United Service Journal No 454, 14 Mar 1851.
 7Malta Mail and United Service Journal No 235, 31 Dec 1846.
 5Hurwitz B., Richardson R., Inspector General James Barry MD: putting the woman in her place Brit Med J 1989, 298; 6669: 299 (4 Feb 1989).
 6Ackroyd M, Brockliss L, Moss M, Retford K, Stevenson J. Advancing with the Army. Medicine, the Professions, and Social Mobility in the British Isles, 1790-1850 p 207.(Oxford 2006).
 Rutherford N J C, Dr James Barry: Inspector General of the Army Medical Department. J Roy Army Med Corps (1939) LXXIII, 2; pp 106-120, 173-178, 240-248. (Aug 1939).
 Rae I., The strange story of Dr James Barry, Army Surgeon, Inspector General of Hospitals, discovered on death to be a woman. London Longmans Green (1958).
 Smith M K. (1982), Dr James Barry, military man — or woman? Journal of the Canadian Medical Association Vol 126; 1: pp 854–857.
 Kirby P R., The Centenary of the death of James Barry: Inspector General of Hospitals (1795–1865). Africana Notes (1965) Vol 16; 6, pp 223–238."

FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown LTC Greg Henning LTC Jeff Shearer Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price CPT Scott Sharon CWO3 Dennis M. SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSG William Jones SGT (Join to see) SGT John " Mac " McConnell SP5 Mark Kuzinski PO1 H Gene Lawrence PO2 Kevin Parker PO3 Bob McCord SSG Donald H "Don" Bates

Strange.