Margaret Ann Bulkley

Margaret Ann Bulkley - Dr. James Barry Born in 1789 in Ireland Margaret Ann Bulkley was a sociable and outgoing child. As a young girl, she once wrote of her desire for “a sword and a pair of colours [military uniform].” After her father went to jail, leaving his family and 14 years old Margaret without a source of incomeh her mother send her to her older brother in London, James Barry. He introduced Margaret to his elite circle of friends, some of whom offered her teaching and mentorship. One of them, a Venezuelan general Francisco Miranda became impressed by Bulkley’s intelligence. He was the first friend of Barry’s to encourage Bulkley to take on the persona of a man to enter the male-dominated field of medicine. After Margaret graduated from medical school, she could shed this disguise and practice freely as a woman doctor in Venezuela. In 1806, her uncle James Barry passed away and left his fortune to the family. Bulkley assumed Barry’s name and used the money to finance three years of medical studies at the University of Edinburgh beginning in December 1809.The new James Barry was a diligent student. Barry pursued a diverse load of coursework, ranging from anatomy and surgery, botany, and midwifery. The number of subjects Barry studied was only exceeded by one Army medical officer and matched by one other student in his cohort of over 45 doctors. After completing a thesis on the femoral hernia (primarily a female condition), Barry became the first woman to graduate from a medical school in Britain.

After Miranda was imprisoned by the Spanish, Bulkley opted to continue the role of Dr. Barry—hiding under the false identity till death. Barry joined the British Army’s medical unit in 1813. Barry became the first doctor in the British Empire to perform a successful caesarean operation. It was one of many major medical contributions the Irish surgeon accomplished for the British military, from enforcing stricter standards for hygiene, improving the diet of sick patients, to popularizing a plant-based treatment for syphilis and gonorrhoea. Barry served around the globe, eventually earning the title of Inspector General, the second most senior medical position in the British Army. She died at age 76 on July 25, 1865. Barry’s medical career had lasted 46 years, with the celebrated doctor assisting the wounded in the Peninsular War, at a military hospital at Plymouth, and treating French prisoners from Waterloo, in addition to stints in South Africa and Canada, writes du Preez in the Bulletin of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Military officials soon found out of Barry’s great disguise, and that they had unknowingly employed a woman for nearly half a century. Ashamed of these revelations, top officials in the Army tried to cover it up, imposing a 100-year embargo on all documentation concerning the “fraudulent” Inspector General. Margaret Ann Bulkley found a means to pursue her ambitions despite the gender restrictions of 19th century society. The globe-trotting doctor worked to advance the field of medicine half a century before Elizabeth Garrett became the first known female to qualify as a doctor in Britain, in 1865—the same year Barry died.