James Barry is best known for his work as a military surgeon within the British Army, though by the time he retired he had risen to the rank of Inspector General of Hospitals.

He was originally from Cork, Ireland, but went to Scotland for his medical degree from the University of Edinburgh Medical School. After graduating he went on to serve in Cape Town, South Africa, and then served in territories all over the Caribbean Sea and Indian Ocean.

During his lifetime, Barry:

• Performed the first documented caesarian section by a European in Africa where both mother and child survived
• Advocated for the wellbeing of wounded soldiers in the army and native inhabitants of the areas colonized by the British Empire
• Called for reforms to the medical profession, including: The regulation and certification of private practitioners, the quality of care for people with leprosy and smallpox, and the quality of care for individual in prisons and mental asylums

Opinions on Barry were mixed: He had a close friendship with Lord Charles Somerset, won a pistol duel against Captain Josias Cloete of the 21st Light Dragoons, and got into an argument with Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War.

Once he began living as James Barry, he successfully passed as a cisgender man until after his death, when an unknown woman acted against his wishes and examined his body, then leaked the secret to the press. Since then, his story was reduced to "the woman surgeon", which unfortunately continues to this very day.

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 Early Life & Education 

Before James Barry: The Surgeon, there was James Barry: The Artist.

James Barry (The Artist) was born on the 11th of October, 1741, making him the oldest of five children in the Barry family. Among his siblings was Mary Ann, the sole sister of the household.

Mary Ann married a man named Jeremiah Bulkley in 1782, and the two of them had three children: John (The problem child), "Margeret Ann" (Whom shall one day be James Barry), and an unknown daughter. The family ran into some issues after sending John to university, because doing so led to John falling in love with a woman known as "Miss Ward" and requesting a settlement from his father. John's demands were fullfilled, which somehow led to Mary and "Margaret" being thrown out of the house by Jeremiah and John. Abandoned.

On the 11th of April, 1804, "Margaret" penned a letter on Mary's behalf to James Barry, as confirmed in the very letter itself^[E]. This letter would be compared to letters penned by James Barry (The Surgeon) and become a piece of evidence that the child who grew up to become James Barry was originally called Margaret.

There was some sort of unpleasant encounter between "Margaret" and Uncle James in June, which led to Mary writing a letter to him that scolded him for his indecent behavior and pleaded with him to help them by participating in a scheme to gain some family property for "Margaret". Good ol' Uncle James proved to be the Scrooge of his time by initially declining, but like Scrooge he had a change of heart, gave up a property in Cork, and began to help "Margaret" enter the world of education.

 Medical Career 

Barry's Personal Account

Barry wrote an account of his career at some point later in life; though the exact year is unspecified, it is reasonable to assume that this account was written after the 19th of July, 1859, when he was forcibly retired on half-pay due to his age and declining health.^[B]

In his own words:^[A]

^{(Though the following has been edited for coherency, the intended message remains. Notes have been where Barry lied to hide that he was female.)}

"I entered the army as a Medical Officer under the age of fourteen years^[1] (in 1816) and served first at the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa). (I spent) about thirteen years attached to the personal staff of the late General Lord Charles Somerset, on whose resignation I was promoted to the rank of Staff Surgeon and sent to Mauritius (Indian Ocean).

I served there about eighteen months and was recalled in consequence of the serious illness of Lord Charles Somerset, upon whose death I proceeded to Jamaica and served under Sir Willoughby Cotton during the Rebellion and the burning of the Plantations by the Negroes. I was in Medical charge of the Troops employed on that service, the Inspector General remaning at Head Quarters.

Thence I was ordered to St. Helena (Southern Atlantic Ocean) as Principal Medical Officer and subsequently to the Windward and Leeward Islands (Caribbean Sea) and did duty at Antiqua (Caribbean Sea) and Trinidad. For several months (I) was in Medical charge of the Troops in the Command during the absence of the Inspector General, and when relieved was thanked in General Orders by General Sir J. Whithingham.

Having returned to this country on sick leave

☛ Corrections

¹ Barry was most likely 22~23 years old when he earned his M.D., 23~24 when he passed the Medical Board examination and was posted in Plymouth, and 26~27 when he went to the Cape of Good Hope in 1816.

 Death & Outing 

Death details

☛ The Stretch Marks – Developer's Opinion

A common myth regarding James Barry is that he had been pregnant and possibly gave birth to a child some time in his youth. The only evidence supplied for the theory was the presence of stretch marks on Barry's lower stomach, found after he died. Technically we can't confirm that Barry never had children (Hard to prove a negative), but the reasoning behind the idea boils down to "She was a female and had stretch marks, clearly her maternal instincts kicked in and she had a child at some point!" ^[D]

It's an assumption rooted in misogyny.

Stretch marks happen to many people for reasons outside of pregnancy, mainly due to growth that happens during one's younger years; coindentally the same time as when the pregnancy myth claims Barry had carried.

Reactions From His Peers

Content Warning: Outdated language for intersex individuals is used, specifically a word now considered a slur.

On the 23rd of August, Registrar General George Graham wrote a letter to D.R. McKinnon, the Staff Surgeon Major. In it, Graham says^[A]

"I(t) has been stated to me that Inspector General Dr. James Barry...was after his death found to be a female.

As you furnished the Certificate as to the cause of his death, I take the liberty of asking you whether what I have heard is true, and whether you yourself ascertained that he was a woman and apparently had been a mother?

Perhaps you may decline answering these questions; but I ask them not for publication but for my own information."

The next day, the 24th of August, McKinnon wrote a letter in reply:^[A]

"I had been intimately acquainted with that gentleman for a good many years, both in the West Indies and in England, and I never had any assumption that Dr. Barry was a female.

I attended him during his last illness, and for some months previously for bronchitis, and the affection causing his death was diarrhea produced apparently by errors in diet.

On one occasion after Dr. Barry's death, I was sent for to the office of Sir Charles McGregor, and there the woman, who performed the last offices for Dr. Barry, was waiting to speak to me.

She wished to obtain some perquisites of her employment which the Lady who kept the lodging house in which Dr. Barry died had refused to give her.

Amongst other things she said Dr. Barry was a female and that I was a pretty doctor not to know this and that she would not like to be attended by me. I informed her that it was none of my business whether Dr. Barry was a male or a female - and that I thought it as likely he might be neither, viz an imperfectly developed man.

She then said that she had examined the body and that it was a perfect female and farther that there were marks of her having had a child when very young. I then enquired how have you formed this conclusion? The woman pointing to the lower part of her stomach, said from marks here, I am a married woman, and the mother of nine children I ought to know.

The woman seemed to me to think that she had become acquainted with a great secret and wished to be paid for keeping it. I informed her that all Dr. Barry's relatives were dead and that it was no secret of mine, and that my own impression was that Dr. Barry was a Hermaphodite.

But whether Dr. Barry was male, female, or hermaphodite I do not know, nor had I any purpose in making the discovery as I could positively swear to the identity of the body as that being of a person whom I had been acquainted with as Inspector General of Hospitals for a period of eight or nine years."

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Sources

1. Bound photocopies of papers from the Public Record Office re the life and career of James Barry (d. 1865), Inspector General of Military Hospitals, including an account (in own hand?) of their career. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). Source: Wellcome Collection. https://wellcomecollection.org/works/e4j3dppq
Note: This source contains incorrect information, because Barry lied on every legal document he had. Good for him.
2. THE LIFE, WORK AND GENDER OF DR JAMES BARRY MD (1795–1865). Source: The Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Volume 4 Issue 31.
   https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/journal/issue/vol31_no4/R_The_Life.pdf
Note: This source contains outdated information, as it was published before Barry's suspected birth identity was found.
3. How History Keeps Ignoring James Barry. Source: Distillations Magazine, The Science History Institute.
   https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/how-history-keeps-ignoring-james-barry/
4. Marks on the Body. Source: Notes on a Gentleman.
   https://notesonagentleman.substack.com/p/marks-on-the-body?s=r
Note: This source is mostly an opinion piece, however it talks about and cites many works about James Barry and offers thoughtful commentary on how society has regarded Barry since his death.
5. Dr James Barry: The early years revealed. Source: South African Medical Journal.
   https://shorturl.at/c1XGe
Note: Lots of blatant and subtle misgendering in this source.

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Last Updated: 21 June 2025