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(#8) As A Surgeon, Barry Performed The First Successful Caesarean Section
Barry is said to have been a great surgeon, and he ascended to the rank of Inspector General in 1857. The role, equivalent to a Brigadier General, placed Barry in charge of military hospitals.
In a testament to his skills, Barry's career included a notable breakthrough: He was the first surgeon to successfully perform a caesarean section where both mother and child lived. Barry performed the emergency C-section in 1826 on a kitchen table in Cape Town. Without anesthesia, Barry's patient and her child survived the procedure.
Barry also pushed for social reforms in South Africa, railing against the harsh treatment at correctional facilities and asylums. The surgeon advocated for better water sanitation in Cape Town and treated everyone, including slaves and the poor.
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(#1) James Barry Kept The Truth Hidden Until The End
When renowned surgeon Dr. James Barry passed in 1865, his housemaid Sophia Bishop made a startling discovery: Barry was biologically female.
Bishop's screams alerted others in the house, and the undertakers quickly confirmed Barry's secret. The news spread across the British Empire.
James Barry successfully hid the fact that he was a woman for decades - but why? Some see Barry as a trans pioneer, while others claim Barry only adopted the male persona because women were banned from medical school. Barry's secret life raises many questions apart from how a nearly 5-foot-tall woman was able to pass as a man for decades.
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(#3) Wearing 3-Inch Shoe Inserts, Barry Enrolled In Medical School
In 1809, James Barry arrived at Edinburgh Medical School, one of the top medical schools in Europe. Barry wore a long overcoat and 3-inch shoe inserts. Fellow classmates remember Barry speaking in a high-pitched voice.
In fact, Margaret Bulkley had adopted a new name and gender to enroll in medical school before women were allowed to attend. Barry never took off his overcoat, even in summer, and stared down anyone who questioned his story.
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(#6) The Surgeon Swore And Developed A Reputation As A Ladies' Man
James Barry had a terrible temper. He yelled at Florence Nightengale in Istanbul because she didn't protect herself from the sun. He shouted at patients in his hospital and had a reputation for smashing medicine bottles against the wall. Barry even challenged a captain to a duel.
Throughout his long career, Barry swore heavily and flirted with women, with one man accusing the surgeon of paying "improper attentions" to his wife.
In one case, when someone said, "You look more like a woman than a man," Barry struck him in the face with a whip.
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(#9) A Letter To A Family Friend Revealed Barry’s Secret Just Weeks After He Adopted The Disguise
In his first year at Edinburgh Medical School, James Barry wrote a letter to the Bulkley family solicitor, Daniel Reardon. Just weeks into disguising himself to enroll in medical school, Barry's letter carefully hid his secret. However, when filing the letter for his records, Reardon scrawled "Miss Bulkley" as the name of the sender.
That clue, which remained hidden until recently when Michael du Preez found the letter in the Yale University archive, proved that James Barry was Margaret Ann Bulkley. The handwriting on the letter also matched earlier letters from Margaret.
The letter also revealed another important fact: Multiple people knew about Barry's disguise from the beginning.
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(#5) Barry Planned To Travel To Venezuela, Where Women Could Practice Medicine
Before transforming into James Barry, Margaret Ann Bulkley had befriended General Francisco de Miranda of Venezuela. Miranda almost certainly knew of Margaret's disguise. When renaming herself, Margaret honored Miranda by calling herself James Miranda Stuart Barry.
After receiving a medical degree in 1812, Barry decided to travel to Venezuela. The country let female doctors practice, so Barry could give up the disguise. But General Miranda was behind bars by 1812, leaving Barry with few options besides continuing the deception.
Barry soon enlisted in the British armed forces as a surgeon.
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About This Tool
There are very few historical records about James Barry, who was a military doctor in the British Army in Cape Town, she fought for better food, better sanitation facilities, and medical care for prisoners, lepers, and soldiers. In 1826, she became the first British doctor to complete a Caesarean section. In the summer of 1865, when infectious dysentery raged in London, she died of the plague, and people discovered when she was buried that she was actually a woman.
The secret of Dr. Barry was revealed. She became the first woman to graduate from medical school in the UK and kept her gender secret for more than half a century. Army officials locked up her service records for nearly a century. The random tool shares 14 legendary stories of James Barry, her real name was Margaret.
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