James Barry (surgeon)

James Miranda Steuart Barry
Barry (left) with John, a servant, and Barry's dog Psyche, c. 1862, Jamaica
Born	Margaret Ann Bulkley c. 1789/1799 Ireland
Died	25 July 1865, approximately aged 66–76 England, United Kingdom
Other names	James Miranda Stuart Barry
Occupation	surgeon
Known for	medical reforms, first successful Caesarean section in Africa

Note: Due to the circumstances of Barry's life, this article avoids the use of gendered pronouns (see Talk page).

Dr James Miranda Steuart Barry (c. 1789/1799 – 25 July 1865, born Margaret Ann Bulkley), was a military surgeon in the British Army, born in Ireland. Barry obtained a medical degree from the University of Edinburgh Medical School, then served first in Cape Town, South Africa and subsequently in many parts of the British Empire. Before retirement, Barry had risen to the rank of Inspector General (equivalent to Brigadier General) in charge of military hospitals, the second highest medical office in the British Army. Barry not only improved conditions for wounded soldiers, but also the conditions of the native inhabitants, and performed the first caesarean section in Africa by a British surgeon in which both the mother and child survived the operation.

Although Barry's entire adult life was lived as a man, Barry was born anatomically female, under the name Margaret Ann Bulkley. Barry chose to live as a man in both public and private life at least in part in order to be accepted as a university student and pursue a career as a surgeon, the truth only becoming known to the public and to military colleagues after death. Depending on historic interpretation, Barry might be considered either the first medically qualified British woman or the first medically qualified British transgender person. In the case of the former, Barry would precede Elizabeth Garrett Anderson as the first British woman qualified to practice as a medical doctor by over 50 years. In the case of the latter, Barry would precede Michael Dillon as the first British transgender medical doctor by over 100 years.

Other than some personal correspondence, there are few sources of information about the non-military parts of Barry's life. The scant available evidence provides a skeleton onto which a great deal of myth and speculation has been added by various commentators. In his detailed research into Barry's early life, Michael Du Preez states that Barry was born in Cork in 1789, a birth date based on Mrs Bulkley's description of her child being fifteen years old in a letter dated 14 January 1805. Various other sources give birth dates of 1792, 1795, and 1799, but these incorrect dates are almost certainly the result of Barry later lying about age on official documents to aid passing as a man.