Margaret Ann Bulkley: The Woman Who Would Be Man
Young people do many things to gain attention or to pursue their dreams, and Dr. James Barry was no different… or was he?
James Miranda Barry, Irish doctor
James Barry was born around 1789 in Cork, Ireland. After his father accrued debts and was sent to a debtors’ prison in Dublin, the precocious teenager reached out for help from an uncle, who recognized the family’s dire circumstances and invited Barry and his mother to relocate to London. There, Barry’s uncle presented him to some of his colleagues, including physician Edward Fryer and Francisco de Miranda, a Venezuelan general, who became his mentors. Wishing to pursue an education and do something beyond the realm of “normal” life, Barry enrolled at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland in 1809, gaining admission to medical school with the help of his now deceased uncle’s trusted friends.
After obtaining a medical degree in 1812, Barry worked as a hospital assistant for the British armed forces, becoming assistant staff surgeon. He held that position through the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Barry then served in South Africa, where he gained the reputation of being a first-class surgeon and was named medical inspector for Cape Town. There, in 1826, he performed the first recorded successful cesarean section in the British Empire that resulted in the survival of both the mother and child.
While in Africa, Barry promoted human rights and public health, encouraging sanitary living conditions, better food, and proper medical care not just for soldiers in barracks, but also for patients in asylums, prisoners, and the ailing, including people with leprosy. In addition, he fought to bring clean water to the public.
By all accounts, Barry worked diligently during a career that spanned almost five decades. He traveled worldwide, to Malta, Mauritius and other islands, as well as to Greece and Canada, taking up positions where his services were needed. In 1857, he became Inspector General for the British armed forces in charge of military hospitals. During his day, he was “well known as a champion and fierce advocate of public health and sanitation.”
In 1859, as Barry’s health was declining, he returned to London, where he was discharged from the army due to poor health. He contracted dysentery and died on July 25, 1865.
Margaret Ann Bulkley, the controversy
So why did the British Army conceal this skilled and distinguished military surgeon’s service records after his death and block access to them for 100 years? Why was this doctor so controversial?
Was it because Barry was known to have a short and hot temper? Army superiors, patients, and even famed British nurse Florence Nightingale herself were subjected to his anger and tendency to be “verbally offensive and sometimes physically threatening.”
The reason isn’t that simple.
Margaret Ann Bulkley aka James Barry (surgeon). Image: unknown author, CC BY-SA 4.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons
In the 19th century throughout the British Empire as elsewhere, women were barred from most formal education and were not allowed to practice medicine. And as it turns out, James Barry was not a man at all but was born Margaret Ann Bulkley, who became a determined and talented girl who would defy the conventions of her time in order to accomplish something beyond the realm of what was allowed of her sex.
In 1809, most likely to enter university and pursue a medical career, Bulkley assumed the name of her uncle (the real James Barry) after his death. She donned an overcoat (that she wore constantly) and heeled shoes, adopting a male persona and altering her age to match her young, boyish looks.
Only at her death when her corpse was prepared for burial was it discovered that Barry was a woman. Newspapers in Britain reported the news, noting that a woman had received a medical degree, had become a renowned surgeon, and had served in the military for over 40 years as an officer, all under the guise of being a man. According to the University of Edinburgh, the British Army denied the fact and sealed all records relating to Barry for about a century, until historian Isobel Rae obtained permission to examine the records in the 1950s.
Despite the scandal, Margaret Ann Bulkley is a vibrant example of a remarkable and accomplished individual with a profound commitment to medicine who lived the life she chose by challenging the gender norms of her time.
