James Barry (surgeon)

James Miranda Stuart Barry (c. 1789-1799 – 25 July 1865, possibly born Margaret Ann Bulkley), is a military surgeon in the British Army.

After graduation from the University of Edinburgh, Barry serves in India and Cape Town, South Africa.

By the end of his career, he has risen to the rank of Inspector General in charge of military hospitals.

In his travels, he not only improves conditions for wounded soldiers, but also the conditions of the native inhabitants.

Among his accomplishments is the first caesarean section in Africa by a British surgeon in which both the mother and child survive the operation.

Although Barry lived his adult life as a man, it is believed that at birth he was identified or assigned as female and named Margaret Ann Bulkley, raised as a girl, and that he chose to live as a man so that he might be accepted as a university student and be able to pursue his chosen career as a surgeon.

Thus Barry would be the first Briton raised as female to become a qualified medical doctor.

If so, it is uncertain whether Barry was anatomically female or intersex.

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