Editing James Barry (surgeon) (section)

==Death==
<!--NOTE: This article refers to Barry as "Barry" wherever possible, avoiding specifically male or female third person pronouns.-->
Despite protesting against the decision, Barry was forcefully retired by the army on 19 July 1859 because of ill health and old age, and was succeeded as inspector general of hospitals by [[David Dumbreck]].{{sfn|du Preez|Dronfield|2016|pp=364–365}}<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=22289|page=2803|date=19 July 1859}}</ref> After a quiet retirement in London, Barry died from [[dysentery]] on 25 July 1865.{{sfn|du Preez|Dronfield|2016|pp=371–374}} The identity of the woman who discovered the truth of Barry's physical sex is disputed, but she was probably a charwoman who also laid out the dead.{{sfn|du Preez|Dronfield|2016|p=390–391}} The charwoman, after failing to elicit payment for her services, sought redress in another way; she visited Barry's physician, Major D. R. McKinnon, who had issued the death certificate upon which Barry was identified as male. The woman claimed that Barry's body had been biologically female and had marks suggesting Barry had at one point borne a child.{{sfn|du Preez|Dronfield|2016|pp=378–379}} However, no professional examination was carried out which could have confirmed these points beyond doubt.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Holmes |first=Rachel |title=The Secret Life of Dr James Barry: Victorian England's Most Eminent Surgeon |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing|Bloomsbury]] |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-4088-9156-8 |location=London |pages=246–247 |language=en}}</ref> When McKinnon refused to pay her, she took the story to the press, and the situation became public. It was discussed in an exchange of letters between George Graham of the General Register Office, and McKinnon.{{sfn|Kubba|Young|2001|pp=354–355}}

{{quote|
Sir,

It has been stated to me that Inspector General Dr James Barry, who died at 14 Margaret St on 25th July 1865, was after his death found to be a Female.

As you furnished the Certificate as to the cause of his death, I take the liberty of asking you whether what I have heard is true, and whether you yourself ascertained that he was a woman and apparently had been a Mother?

Perhaps you may decline answering these questions; but I ask them not for publication but for my own information.

I have the honor to be

Sir

Your faithful Servant

George Graham

Registrar General<ref name="auto">{{Cite web |title=Bound photocopies of papers from the Public Record Office re the life and career of James Barry (d. 1865), Inspector General of Military Hospitals, including an account (in own hand?) of their career |url=https://wellcomecollection.org/works/e4j3dppq |access-date=2022-04-03 |website=Wellcome Collection |language=en}}</ref>
}}

McKinnon's response was as follows:

{{quote|
Sir

I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 23rd August respecting the death of Inspector General Dr James Barry.

I had been intimately acquainted with that gentleman for a good many years, both in the West Indies, & in England, and I never had any suspicion that Dr Barry was a female.

I attended him during his last illness, and for some months previously for bronchitis; the affection causing his death was diarrhoea produced apparently by errors in diet.

On one occasion after Dr Barry's death, I was sent for to the office of Sir Charles McGregor, & there the woman who performed the last offices for Dr Barry was waiting to speak to me.

She wished to obtain some perquisites of her employment which the Lady who kept the lodging house in which Dr Barry died had refused to give her.

Amongst other things she said Dr Barry was a female & that I was a pretty doctor not to know this & that she would not like to be attended by me. I informed her that it was none of my business whether Dr Barry was a male or a female – that I thought it as likely he might be neither, viz. an imperfectly developed man.

She then said that she had examined the body & that it was a perfect female & farther that there were marks of her having had a child when very young. I then enquired how have you formed this conclusion? The Woman pointing to the lower part of her stomach, said from marks here. I am a married woman, & the mother of nine children & I ought to know.

The woman seemed to me to think that she had become acquainted with a great secret & wished to be paid for keeping it, I informed her that all Dr Barry's relatives were dead, & that it was no secret of mine, & that my own impression was that Dr Barry was a Hermaphrodite.

But whether Dr Barry was male, female, or hermaphrodite I do not know, nor had I any purpose in making the discovery as I could positively swear to the identity of the body as being that of a person whom I had been acquainted with as Inspector General of Hospitals for a period of eight or nine years.

I have the honour to be

Sir

Yours faithfully

Signed,

D R McKinnon<ref name="auto"/>
}}

After the matter was made public, some people claimed to have known of it all along,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=A. M. S. |date=16 October 1895 |title=To the Editors of The Lancet |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_the-lancet_1895-10-19_2_3764/page/1020/mode/2up |journal=[[The Lancet]] |volume=2 |pages=1021 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> although many who had known Barry expressed surprise<ref>{{Cite book |last=Keppel |first=George Thomas, Earl of Albemarle |title=Fifty Years of My Life 2 |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] |year=1876 |location=London |pages=101 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Carphin |first=Jane |date=14 October 1895 |title=To the Editors of The Lancet |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_the-lancet_1895-10-19_2_3764/page/1020 |journal=[[The Lancet]] |volume=2 |pages=1021 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=R. A. |date=3 August 1901 |title=Dr. Barry |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_notes-and-queries_1901-08-03_8_188/page/108 |journal=Notes and Queries |volume=8 |pages=108–109 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> or even disbelief.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Bradford |first=Edward |date=2 September 1865 |title=The Reputed Female Army Surgeon. Letter from Deputy-Inspector Bradford |url=https://archive.org/details/medicaltimesand13unkngoog/page/293 |journal=Medical Times and Gazette |volume=2 |pages=293 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cookworthy |first=J. C. |date=13 September 1865 |title=The Reputed Female Army Surgeon. Letter from Dr. J. C. Cookworthy |url=https://archive.org/details/medicaltimesand13unkngoog/page/350 |journal=[[Medical Times and Gazette]] |volume=2 |pages=350 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> The British Army, seeking to suppress the story, sealed Barry's service records for the next 100 years.<ref name="New Scientist"/>{{Dubious|date=February 2022}} The historian Isobel Rae gained access to the army records in the 1950s, and concluded that the painter James Barry was indeed Barry's uncle.<ref name=sm20081230 /> Barry was buried in [[Kensal Green Cemetery]], with a Portland stone headstone inscribed ''Dr James Barry Inspector General of Hospitals''.<ref>{{NHLE |num= 1403609|desc= Monument to Dr James Barry, Kensal Green Cemetery|access-date=5 May 2020|mode=cs2}}</ref> It was claimed by several sources that "John", the manservant who always attended Barry, returned to [[Jamaica]], but his actual fate is unknown.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.artwarefineart.com/gallery/portrait-james-barry-born-margaret-ann-bulkley-1799-1865 |title=Portrait of James Barry, born Margaret Ann Bulkley 1799–1865 |website=Artware Fine Art |first=Raymond |last=Lister |access-date=17 February 2021}}</ref>