This
is a well known story to which is hard to add anything new. There are at least
four full length biographies of the cross dressing, duelling, pioneering
surgeon Dr James Barry (the most recent published last year), a couple of
novels, one successful stage play (starring Sybil Thorndike in 1918) an
unsuccessful one (by the Irish writer Sebastian Barry, no relative), countless
newspaper articles (the first published a few weeks after his death and
continuing, more or less uninterrupted, ever since) and a projected film with
actress Rachel Weisz signed up for the main role.
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| A portrait of the young James Barry |
Outwardly
James Barry lived a life of almost exemplary colonial dullness. When his
biographies deal with the known facts of his life they generally make dreary
reading; he studied at Edinburgh and became a surgeon, joined the army, served
in South Africa, Mauritius, St Helena, Jamaica, Malta, Corfu and Canada, was
dedicated to his job to the exclusion of almost all other activities, was
promoted, never married or formed many close relationships and died in obscurity
and genteel poverty in London. He was generally acknowledged to be a
cantankerous and argumentative individual but one who was very good at his job.
His greatest medical achievement was performing the first successful caesarean
section in British medicine, the criteria by which success was judged being the
survival of both mother and child. The operation was performed in South Africa
where the usually staid progress of his life was interrupted in June 1824 when
he became the subject of a scandalous libel written in large block capitals in
a disguised hand and nailed to a post on one of the bridges over the canal at Heerengracht
in Cape Town.
“A person, living
at Newlands, takes this method of making it known to the public authorities of
this Colony that on the 5th instant he detected Lord Charles buggering Dr
Barry. Lady Charles had her suspicions, or saw something that led her to
suspicion, which had caused a general quarrel….The person is ready to come and
make oaths to the above.”
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| Lord Charles Somerset |
The
libel caused uproar; the alleged buggerer was Lord Charles Somerset, 20 years
Barry’s senior, the son of the Duke of Beaufort, Governor of Cape Colony and
member of the Privy Council. Barry was his personal physician and everyone knew
the two men were on exceedingly good terms with each other, they just hadn’t
realised quite how warm relations between the two were. The scandal did not
confine itself to Cape Colony, the news reached England and questions were
asked about it on more than one occasion in both the House of Commons and the Lords. Lord Charles was
eventually recalled to explain himself, which he evidently did to everyone’s
satisfaction as no charges were ever proffered against either him or Barry. Barry
eventually lived down the South African disgrace and carried on devoting his
life to his career. It was only when he
died that a fact emerged which made the sodomy scandal pale into insignificance
(or perhaps cast into a rather different light). A month after his death a
Dublin newspaper, Saunder’s News Letter
and Daily Advertiser, ran the story of the military surgeon who was,
unbeknown to and apparently unsuspected by everyone who knew him (except
perhaps for Lord Charles Somerset) a woman. The story was picked up by
the English provincial newspapers which ran the Irish story word for word:
A
STRANGE STORY. An incident is now being discussed in military
circles so extraordinary that, were not its truth capable of being vouched for
official authority, the narration would certainly deemed absolutely incredible.
Our officers quartered at the Cape between 15 and 20 years ago may remember a
certain Dr Barry attached to the medical staff there, and enjoying a reputation
for considerable skill in his profession, especially for firmness, decision and
rapidity in difficult operations. This gentleman had entered the army in 1813,
had passed, of course, through the grades of assistant surgeon and surgeon in
various regiments, and had served such in various regiments, and had served as
such in various quarters of the globe. His professional acquirements had
procured for him his promotion to the staff at the Cape. He was clever and
agreeable, save for the drawbacks of a most quarrelsome temper and an
inordinate addiction to argument, which perpetually brought the former
peculiarly into play. He was excessively plain, of feeble proportions, and
laboured under the imperfection of a ludicrously squeaking voice. Any natural
chaffing with regard to these, however, especially roused his ire, but was at
length discontinued on his ‘calling out’ a persevering offender, and shooting
him through the lungs. About 1840 he became promoted to be medical inspector,
and was transferred to Malta. There he was equally distinguished by his skill
and his pugnacious propensities, the latter becoming so inconveniently
developed upon the slightest difference of opinion with him, that at last no
notice was allowed to be taken of his fits of temper. He proceeded from Malta
to Corfu, where he was quartered for years, still conspicuous for the same
peculiarities. When our Government ceded the lonian Islands to Greece, and our
troops, of course, quitted the territory Dr Barry elected to leave the army and
take up his residence for the rest his days at Corfu. He there died about a
month ago and upon his death was discovered to be woman! Very probably this
discovery was elicited during the natural preparations for interment, but there
seems to be an idea prevalent that either verbally, during his last illness, or
by some writing, perused immediately after his (for I must still use the
“masculine”) death, he had begged to be buried without post mortem examination
of any sort. This, most likely, only aroused the curiosity of the two nurses
who attended him, for it was to them, it appears, that the disclosures of this
mystery is owing. Under the circumstances, the fact was deemed so important
that medical testimony was called in to report and record its truth. By this
investigation not only was the assertion placed beyond a doubt, but it was
equally beyond a doubt brought to light that the individual in question had, at
some time or other, been a mother! This is all that is yet known of this extraordinary
story. The motives that occasioned, and the time when commenced this singular
decoction, are both shrouded in mystery. But thus it stands indubitable fact
that a woman was for forty years an officer in the British service, had fought
one duel and had sought many more, had pursued a legitimate medical education,
had received a regular diploma, and had acquired almost a celebrity for skill
as surgical operator! There is no doubt whatever about the “fact,” but I doubt
whether even Miss Braddon herself would have ventured to make use of it in
fiction.— Irish Paper
Stonehaven
Journal - Thursday 31 August 1865
No
sooner had the story been published then individuals who had known Barry before
his death rushed into print to let the world know that they had always had
their doubts about the masculinity of the good doctor, a letter from a Dr
McGowan of Paisley for example appeared in the Whitehaven News of 07 September;
THE LATE DR.
BARRY. We have received the following letter from a medical gentleman resident
at Paisley :
Dear Sir, ln
reference to notice taken in your paper of a Dr. Barry, who has lately died, I
would take it kind if you could give me some information of this extraordinary
person, for I had the pleasure of knowing him intimately twenty-three or
twenty-four years ago, in the Island of Trinidad, when he held the appointment
of Inspector General Hospitals. He was always suspected of being female from
his effeminate features and voice, and having neither beard nor whiskers. He
was a very bold person, and challenged one or two of our officials for naming
him a diminutive creature. He had a favourite little dog, which always carried
about with him, and it was currently said that had made a will, leaving the dog
all his effects, and Sambo, £100 as a legacy. He lay at the point of death one
time, and gave strict injunctions to my friend, Dr. O’Connor, who attended him,
not to allow his body to be inspected or disturbed in the event of his decease,
but to be buried immediately with his clothes on. He always took care never to
be seen . . . like any ordinary man. He was highly respected, and was a
frequent attendant at the Governor’s levees. He was a strict vegetarian, and
his regulation sword was as long as himself. He resided at a country house, a
gun-shot from St. James’s Barracks, about two miles from Port Spain, in
Trinidad, my native place.
You are at
liberty to make use of this letter you please; and let me have your answer as
soon as convenient. Meantime. I am, dear sir, yours very truly,
R. T. McGowan,
M.D. Paisley, Sept. 2nd, 1865.
P S.-I may state
that Dr. Barry was looked upon by some in the Island as the illegitimate
offspring of some English nobleman, from the great influence and haughty
bearing which he used to possess. R. T. McC.
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| James Barry by George Richmond |
The
story in Saunders News Letter was full of errors including fundamental ones
like the location of Barry’s death. He
did not die, or even live, as the paper claimed in Corfu. Barry was living as a
lodger in rooms rented from a dentist at 14 Margaret Street, just north of
Oxford Circus. Although he was living in
straitened circumstances he continued to be attended, as he had been for the
best part of thirty years by his faithful black valet. No one knew the valet’s
name and he was dubbed Black John by the newspapers or Sambo by rude and
ignorant individuals like Dr R.T. McGowan of Paisley. His valet was with him
when he died as a result of chronic diarrhoea caused by dysentery at 4.00am on
25 July 1865. A woman called Sophia Bishop, a charwoman employed by the dentist’s
wife, was asked to prepare Barry’s body for burial. Responsibility for his interment
was taken by the army which bought a 3 guinea plot in Kensal Green to bury him
in. They also bought a headstone, a plain inexpensive slab of white stone which
they had inscribed with his name, job title (Inspector General of Hospitals)
and the wrong date of death. It was only after the funeral that Sophia Bishop
made her way to the office of the registrar and demanded to speak to the doctor
who had certified Barry’s death, Dr D.R. McKinnon. It was only after the story
broke in Saunders that the registrar
general wrote to Dr McKinnon to ask him what he knew of the strange affair that
the doctor related what he had been told by Sophia Bishop:
On one occasion after Dr Barry’s death at the office of Sir Charles McGregor, there was the woman who performed the last offices for Dr Barry was waiting to speak to me. She wished to obtain some prerequisites of his employment, which the Lady who kept the lodging house in which Dr Barry died had refused to give her. Amongst other things she said that Dr Barry was a female and that I was a pretty doctor not to know this and 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 that he might be neither, viz. an imperfectly developed man. She then said that she had examined the body, and was a perfect female and farther that there were marks of him having had a child when very young. I then enquired how have you formed that 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 and I ought to know.’ The woman seems 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 Hermaphrodite.
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| The only known photograph of Barry taken with his valet and his dog Psyche at a studio in Kingston, Jamaica |
Although
it had been suspected for some time, research carried out by South African
urologist Dr Michael du Preez, published
in his recent book “Dr James Barry: A Woman Ahead of Her Time”, finally confirmed
beyond doubt that Dr James Barry was born around 1789 in Cork to Jeremiah and
Mary Ann Bulkley and christened Margaret Ann.
As a teenager Margaret Anne was the victim of unwanted sexual attention,
possibly from a family member, and became pregnant, giving birth to a daughter
Juliana who was passed off their own by her parents. Jeremiah’s grocery
business fell on hard times and he presumably fell into temptation regarding
quick and easy ways to make money as the last known record of him is on a
convict ship bound for New South Wales. Mary Ann took her daughter to London
where she had a wealthy relative, the Royal Academician James Barry. She must
have been in despair when her brother died but probably perked up considerably
when she was told he had died intestate and therefore, as the only surviving
relative, she had inherited his entire fortune. Quite why Mary Ann took her
daughter to Edinburgh and went along with her plan to disguise herself as a man
and enrol in the university as a medical student we will never know. It seems
highly likely that not only her mother but several of her uncle’s influential
friends including the Venezuelan General Francisco de Miranda and David Steuart
Erskine, the Earl of Buchan, were aware of the deception and either encouraged or
colluded in it. The plan may have been to qualify as a doctor disguised as a
man and then move to Venezuela and practice as a woman but General Miranda’s
early death put paid to that idea. Evidently Margaret Ann was comfortable
enough in her role as a man to continue with it for the rest of her life. Her autobiography
would be fascinating but colossal deceptions require absolute dedication to
never breaking cover and no word regarding the truth of her sex or how she felt
about her secret life ever escaped her lips.
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| The grave in an earlier, more pristine, incarnationn |
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