Born the second child of Mary and Jeremiah.

Life in anti-Catholic Cork became financially dire.

They were forced to emigrate to London in 1804.

But Mary’s brother denied reconciliation: old sores.

 

However, he left an inheritance in his will.

The children gained a future, a hope of a skill.

James enrolled at the Edinburgh School of Medicine.

Barry’s continuous and compounding falsehoods begin

 

He graduated in 1812 as a qualified MD.

Moving back to London, he took on further study.

An autumn course at St Thomas’s and St Guy’s,

Gaining the Royal College of Surgeons’ highest prize.

 

What followed was an amazing military career.

First a hospital assistant, then a Cape Town pioneer.

Good fortune led to meeting Somerset, the governor,

His lordship made Barry his medical practitioner.

 

Six years later, he was duly promoted

Medical Inspector, now his thoughts were noted.

New ideas supported, nothing discarded.

An opportunity to help those less regarded.

 

Improving water systems and sanitation,

A sanctuary for the leper population.

Helped prisoners, the mentally ill, and those enslaved.

The first known Caesarean, with mother and baby saved.   

 

He was honoured that his mother had named the baby after him

Not his real name, but his considered pseudonym

Borne by the baby’s descendants across South African history 

Including J. B. M. Hertzog, the Prime Minister, ironically,

 

Barry was promoted several times, a high flyer

And was posted often across the British Empire

Mauritius, Jamaica, the Leeward Isles, and St. Helena

Went AWOL to become Somerset’s medical intervener

 

Arrested and court-martialled, found not guilty 

Of conduct unbecoming of a gentleman, the absurdity

Contracting yellow fever whilst in the Windward Isles,

He travelled back to England, nearly five thousand miles

 

Once fit, he travelled on to Malta as cholera grew

As deputy inspector general, he was posted to Corfu 

1857, in Canada, he became a brigadier general

He fought for better sanitation and food for all

 

Barry died in 1865, and then the truth came out abruptly

He was found to be a she. Margaret Anne Bulkley.

Along with a well-hidden female anatomy

There were signs of a well-hidden pregnancy.

 

Medical and military institutions were shocked to the core

But his colleagues vehemently defended him; his guarantors.

Recognising his lifelong compassion and conviction

Had saved countless lives, regardless of gender distinction