Imagine being called “the most hardened creature” someone has ever met. Now imagine it was Florence Nightingale, often called the founder of modern nursing, who said that. That would put you in the shoes of James Barry, a renowned doctor and medical researcher in the 19th century.
Born in 1789 in Cork, Ireland, Dr. James Barry was originally known as Margaret Anne Bulkley. This changed however when he found his passion for medicine, specifically women’s health, and changed his name to match his late Uncle’s in 1809.
Barry enrolled in Edinburgh University and qualified as a doctor in 1812. An expert in women’s health, the majority of his research and medical practices focused on gynecology, female sexual health, and sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention. In fact, he was one of the first doctors documented to have warned against hernias correlating to childbirth and pregnancy.
He went on to enlist in the British Army and served as a surgeon, mainly being stationed in South Africa. It was here in 1826 when Barry performed one of the first successful C-sections in Africa where both the mothers and baby survived. The mother in question was Wilhemina Munnik and she went on to name one of her children after Barry in honour of him.
Whilst stationed in South Africa, he also dedicated some of his research to studying native plants for potential treatments of STIs such as syphilis and gonorrhea.
Sounds like a stand up guy, right? Well, although his pursuits were noble, not many people liked Dr. Barry. He was a man who cared deeply about his practice, not other people or their opinions. Many saw Barry as an effeminate man with a squeaky voice who was snarky, impatient, and opinionated.
He frequently challenged that status quo and would happily dispute those in his field who disagreed with him. Especially when someone questioned his masculinity. This led to Barry, on numerous occasions, threatening to duel with his enemies. One such occasion ended in an actual duel with Captain Josias Cloete in which Dr. Barry came out on top!
The person he had the most beef with however was none other than the highly respected Florence Nightingale. Dr. Barry was reportedly appalled by the hygiene standards at Nightingale’s Scutari Hospital and made many comments resulting in Nightingale calling him “the most hardened creature” she’d ever met.
Despite his disregard for politeness or social norms, he was deeply passionate at ensuring every patient was treated with compassion and given proper medical attention no matter their situation.
Barry was highly disturbed by the treatment of prisoners, soldiers, and their families. He advocated for improvements on sanitary conditions and food quality at almost every hospital he was stationed at. This outrage was mostly met with angry superiors, unfortunately.
Barry died from dysentery, but before he did, he was adamant that he be buried in the clothes he died in and that no autopsy was had. That nobody shall see his body after his death.
This wish was disregarded by the doctor attending to his corpse. It was only then after his that it was found that he had a female’s body and was born a woman. Said doctor, Major D. R. McKinnon, still honoured him however by keeping his gender as ‘male’ on his death certificate.
Written by Alec Yorke (he/him)
References:
adminTMM. (2025, August 12). Dr James Barry: the surgeon defying gender norms – Thackray
Museum of Medicine. Thackray Museum of Medicine. https://thackraymuseum.co.uk/dr-james-barry-the-surgeon-defying-gender-norms/
Archives, T. N. (n.d.). The National Archives – Homepage. The National Archives.
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/dr-james-barry
James Barry. (2024, September 9). The University of Edinburgh.
https://medicine-vet-medicine.ed.ac.uk/about/history/historic-alumni/james-barry
