James Barry was one of the most outstanding doctors of the nineteenth century – a brilliant surgeon, a tireless campaigner for medical reform, and a compassionate Inspector-General of the Army.But throughout a long and distinguished career an air of secrecy, even of scandal, always clung to Barry. The shrill voice, the diminutive build, the almost ostentatious humanity – all struck a discordant … struck a discordant note in the stiff, conventional world of the officers’ mess. Only after the doctor’s death in 1865 did the incredible truth come to light:
Dr. James Barry was a woman.
What was her real identity? How did she manage to conceal her sex from the army for forty-six years? Why did she take on a man’s role and a man’s work?
In this vivid and meticulous biography, June Rose pieces together the clues in the Barry mystery and comes up with some astonishing answers. She tells of the elite intellectual circle which first conceived the masquerade and sponsored the little girl’s entrance, in disguise, into Edinburgh University; she recounts Barry’s strange connection with a powerful aristocratic family and her intense relationship with Lord Charles Somerset, Governor of the Cape Colony and one of the few men to know her secret.
And, most fascinating of all, she provides rare insights into Barry’s unique and contradictory personality: her determined clashes with authority, her courageous endurance of appalling conditions in every corner of the globe, her unforgettable encounter with Florence Nightingale.
The Perfect Gentleman is the story of an extraordinary adventure – and a remarkable woman.
Praise for June Rose
‘A fascinating, well-documented book’ – Sunday Telegraph
‘June Rose has succeeded in re-creating the past and relating it to the present… a fascinating account’ – Times Literary Supplement
June Rose (1926-2018) was a writer and broadcaster who specialised in probing into the human and historical background of the social issues of the day. She authored several biographies, including Marie Stopes and the Sexual Revolution, Elizabeth Fry, the nineteenth-century prison reformer and Modigliani, the twentieth-century Italian painter and Susan Valadon: Mistress of Montmartre.
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I enjoyed the book. She was a strong women and had grit to live as a man especially in times of war.
She was lonely and if it were me I would have became my true self in another town.
A fairly interesting read but the subject was really a quite insufferable egoist. Had some forward-thinking notions for his/her time but if he hadn’t been a woman, no one would have cared about him one whit. Certainly if he had been a man no book would have been written about him.
Interesting premise but boring book.
Very interesting portrayal of a doctor who had a very hard life because of a secret.
An exceptional woman who lived her life on her own terms and accomplished good in her life. Fascinating story.
Her history was really interesting…. though like many biographies, it gets stuck in details about people that are only peripheral to the story. I sympathized with her irritability and impatience after dealing with immovable bureaucracies and arrogant colleagues.
Learned about an episode in women’s history I’d never known existed. Points up the importance of women talking with each other as we break barriers.
“The Perfect Gentleman” is the true story of a woman who spent her whole life as a man in the early 19th Century. She graduated at the age of 12 with a degree in medicine from the University of Edinburgh, and started a career as a military surgeon at the age of 13. I ask myself what was I doing at this age. The biography leads us through the prejudices and abuse of power of military authorities of those times, and of the remarkable achievements of this man/woman. A truly remarkable book.
Dr. James Barry was a fascinating person and this book generated some interesting response. Barry was a child prodigy, graduating from medical school in his early teens (possibly as young as 12, depending on the veracity of the year of birth) and promptly entered the army (possibly under the age 14). He was way ahead of his time. He demanded rigorous cleanliness in sickrooms, daily linen changes, frequent dressing of wounds, and diets heavy on fruits and vegetables. He campaigned for human conditions for prisoners, paupers, lunatics, and convicts. He believed insanity should be treated in a hospital, not an asylum. As a chief medical inspector, he ensured open sewers were replaced with sealed iron pipes in South Africa, and performed the first Caesarian section in the colony. He was also rumored to be a hermaphrodite due to his beardless face, high voice, and tiny stature. Upon his death at age 71, it was discovered that he had been a woman (and one who had once given birth) all along. He was able to perpetuate the ruse partly because men at the time could not believe a woman was capable of being such brilliant surgeon and able to pull the wool over their eyes despite decades in military service all over the world. Now for the backlash to this book: the author consistently referred to Barry as “she” and at one point even surmised that “almost certainly she must have sometimes longed to be private person, a woman able to express her femininity.” If the men of the time (early 19th century) were unable to conceive of a female military surgeon, the author seems unable to conceive of a woman who may have actually wanted to be a man. The transgender community was not happy with the way Barry’s life was framed.
Given the era in which she lived, her life was truly amazing! It is a wonderful very readable bit of history that I thoroughly enjoyed and by which I was awed.